Teaching Darkness: Relapse
by Rae Logan
Summary: Part 4 in "Teaching Darkness" series. Is it true? Is Mephiles starting to lose his mind again? He claimed to have seen him, one from his past... but no one really believes him. Is he telling the truth?
1. Is It True?

Okay. While "Job Quest" is still a main story... the series can continue okay without that having to be finished right away... In fact... if my cousin doesn't stop stalling with her character to be put in it... I'm just gonna go on without her, and add it later. This is getting ridiculus!

That being said... I've decided to start a new main story. I call it "Teaching Darkness: Relapse" :D

I hope you like chapter one :D

* * *

It was night. Mephiles was sleeping soundly on the couch. It had been at least a month since his most recent nightmare. Shadow and Rouge were unaware of it for a few reasons: 1) He hadn't told them. 2) He hadn't really woken up in pure fright. And 3) He figured passed it off as an irrational and totally silly thing, the kind that he would mentally kick himself for overreacting about it.

Curled up on his side, pillow hugged close to his chest, the shady hedgehog neither moved nor twitched; his mind safe and sound from terrifying thoughts.

Darkness was spread throughout the room, which was expected of the middle of the night. The only lights given were the glow of the streetlamps outside, and the time given on the cable box.

The shade's ear twitched, and he scrunched his eyelids before opening them sleepily, lifting his head up and staring around in confusion.

He was alone; the room was glowing dimly with a mix of orange and hint of green light (from the cable box.). It was quiet, nothing moved.

He blinked blearily, shifting his eyes slowly to the cable box to read the time.

12:34 am.

Rubbing his eyes a little, he rested his head back down, wondering why he had woken up so early. Something had woken him up, and not on his part.

But the room was empty, save for him. He had glanced around it himself.

Or, at least… that's what he thought.

"… _I see that your reflexes have slowed down… I was here for five minutes already..._" A quiet, rasping voice said. It was very familiar…

Upon hearing it, Mephiles' eyes snapped wide open and he sat up abruptly, and jerked away from the source of the voice.

He saw no one, though, granted, his eyes were not well adjusted for night vision… which was considered ironic for the once "demon" of darkness.

He perked his ears forward, his heart pounding hard enough for him to risk another panic attack. He swallowed hard and said: "… H-hello? Who's there?"

He thought he might know the answer, but he hoped to God he was wrong.

"_... Now, now, Mephy… I know it's been a bit over a trimester… but, don't tell me you've forgotten about me…_"

No, he hadn't.

He never did, even if it was a thought shoved to the very back of his mind.

His palms twinged from an old injury, and he alternated hands while he rubbed at them unconsciously with his thumbs.

"Why are you here? I thought you were-"

"Dead?" The voice snickered raucously. "_You honestly _thought_ that _I_ could be kept down _there? _Fire is our brother's element, Mephy… We are the shadow cast from it. We are a flame's shade… we cannot be harmed by it…_"

"You…" Mephiles corrected, carefully getting off the couch, and backing away, struggling to not show the fear he was feeling. He willed with all his heart to keep his muscles from trembling, but a quiver escaped occasionally. He laid his ears back and said a bit louder. "You mean _you _are a flame's shade. I am my own person. I am not bound to you or him anymore…"

"_Such brave and well spoken words for such a little weakling…_" The owner of the voice stepped better into dim glow of light, and Mephiles saw his doppelganger, mirroring every little detail of him, except for some subtle differences.

The eyes were a brighter shade. The red "whites" were crimson, compared to Mephiles' soft light red. The irises were a poisonous shade of green, much different than Mephiles' lime colored ones. The pupils were slits, cat-like even, narrowed, even though the light was dim. On his identical pale muzzle was a wicked smirk Mephiles remember all to well. It had once been his own…

Mephiles shuddered and took another step back to brace himself against a wall to keep from falling down. His worst fear was confirmed…

Panting heavily, he swallowed and ran through his mind for what to do next. Not scream… that was for sure. He didn't want Dark to be able to use anything as an example of his weakness… not that he was admitting he had any…

Dark tilted his head to the side slowly, keeping his form hunched, his arms hanging loosely. His eyes didn't leave Mephiles.

"_Why_ are you here? What do you want!?" Mephiles demanded, forcing his voice to be raised slightly above normal speaking level. He hoped if he was able to make himself loud enough, Shadow or Rouge might come to see if he was having another nightmare, and find Dark in here instead. Actually… he hoped Shadow would come first… Shadow can hold his own against Dark better than he thought Rouge might.

Dark snickered under his breath.

"_Why would you think I'm here for something? Can't I just come by to-_"

"Not to visit, _that's_ for sure!" Mephiles cut across him, curling his hands into fists slowly. "I _know_ what you're like. You always want _some_thing. You always want to benefit yourself, and it doesn't matter to you _who_ it hurts!"

"_My, my… aren't _we_ the brilliant one..?_" Dark raised his clawed hands up a bit to applaud Mephiles mockingly before letting his arms drop again. "_... After all… we _are_ the brains of Solaris…_"

"_Shut up._" Mephiles barked back, hating what his other half said. "I am _not_ a part of that anymore. I am not _you._ I am not a fire's shadow. I am not a _demon!_"

"_You can't deny your roots, Mephy boy… You can try to run… you can try to hide… you can just ignore it all, and go about your happy pathetic little life… but it will all come back to you eventually…_"

"I _said _'Shut up'!"

"_Am I striking a nerve?_" Dark purred, taking another step closer. "_You could never take any teasing… and you were always the unstable one… never was that good with complex emotions…_"

Every word Dark was saying was steadily ticking off Mephiles. He clenched his teeth together, baring them at his double. His eyes were narrowed, his quills and fur bristling as he uncurled his fingers slightly to stop his claws from digging into his palms.

"I'm not playing…" He warned again, his voice lowering to a deep growl. "This is your last warning…"

"_What are you going to do? Scream? Like you do with those nightmares?_"

"That has _nothing_ to do with this!"

"_I know what you 'dream' about… what goes on in your fragile little mind… I know…_"

"My mind is _not _fragile!"

"_They scare you because it's true… because it's your fault…_"

"No, it's not! I didn't do _any_thing! They were dead after-"

"_After we were born… _because_ we were born… That explosion that gave us life is what took theirs' away. If it wasn't for us… they'd still be alive…_"

Mephiles clapped his hands over his ears, trying to block out the doppelganger's voice. Unfortunately, his ears were not made to be covered like that, so he was better off placing a hat on his head.

"_I'm sure you remember that day pretty well…_"

Mephiles looked up and saw that Dark was now just a few feet away. His body froze, unable to move in his terror. But he struggled to keep his face free from fear. He mentally cursed to himself when sweat started to bead up on his face.

Dark saw this and continued.

"_The glass… the bodies… the _blood…"

Mephiles shut his eyes tightly as the memory started to rise up slowly to the surface of his mind. His hands twitched as he tried to bring them to his head to grasp behind the quills on the back of it, but his muscles were locked.

"… _Those are your nightmares… Am I right? Something that represents that day. Like you with your hands covered in their blood, dripping from your quills, smeared onto your face from your hands… pooling in a puddle around you…_"

"S-stop it…" Mephiles stuttered, unable to do much else."Just s-stop…"

"_Are we getting a headache now? Remembering something forgotten?_" Dark continued goading him. "_Face it… that's always going to be in your head… bouncing around in your skull… repeating and relapsing… you can't erase it…_"

"P-please… s-stop…" Mephiles was now begging him, his former confidence gone and washed away as the old memory started to affect him again.

The double laughed uproariously at this action.

"Begging? _You have to resort to _begging? _Only a weakling would even think to do _that…"

"I'm not… w-weak…" Mephiles opened an eye to stare at Dark, only to find that he was closer now. Much closer. He could feel his breath ghost across his face, and this caused him to shiver, which allowed him to break free from his paralysis, and back into the wall, his hand clutching at his chest as his breath became ragged and his heart pounded even harder. His legs quivered, and a constant chill shot up and down his spine. He even felt too weak to call out for help.

"W-what do you… w-want from m-me?" He murmured, shaking his head slightly to ward off a veil of unconsciousness that was trying to sneak up on him.

"_Patience, Mephy... patience…_" Dark waggled a finger in front of him. "_All in due time… All in due time…_"

He raised his hand and Mephiles eyes widened as it was brought down against the side of his neck. Instantly, Mephiles felt faint as a pressure point was hit. He barely had time to reach his hand to his head before he collapsed in a heap on the floor, his mind a complete blank.

* * *

He slowly regained his senses, his brain being the first thing to start to wake up. He brought his hand to his face slowly, rubbing at his eyes to help him wake up.

He was back on the couch; someone must have put him there.

Wondering what had happened as his mind started to function better; he lifted his eyelids and found a set of red eyes, and a set of jade eyes staring at him.

He was about to ask what had happened before his mind clicked into full gear and he unasked question was answered as his eyes snapped open wider.

He jumped up quickly, his fur and quills on end as he glanced around the room frantically, his teeth clenched together tightly and panting through them heavily. He had his hands up and his claws out, ready to defend himself.

"_Whoa!_ Hey, calm down!" He heard Shadow exclaim as he wheeled around to look behind him.

"He's not still here, is he?" Was all Mephiles said to this, his voice lowered to a deep growl. He figured not… the sun was already out.

"Who?"

"Dark! He was just here last night!" The shade turned around to face them, and they could see both anger and distress painted across his face. "He was _right_ here in this room last night!"

"Are you sure it wasn't just a bad dream?"

"Rouge, if it was, you would have heard me screaming last night, because I was scared out of my mind!"

"Why didn't you scream for help?"

"Do you know how _dangerous_ this guy is?! Ask Shadow! The only reason he won that fight was that Dark fell in the water and couldn't swim! Otherwise, his butt would have been handed to him! Dark is what made me a _monster!_"

Mephiles was panting hard, and had to close his eyes as he caught his breath. He brought his hand over his old shoulder injury and clenched it tightly as a sharp spasm ran through his lungs, signaling him to ease up on the breathing. He slowed down his breaths and sat down on the couch before his body tried to come up with an excuse for fainting.

Once his breathing was in a steady and stable rhythm, he took another deep breath and opened his eyes to stare at his friends.

"Trust me… would I lie to you?" He swallowed as he spoke in a low voice, his eyes holding a pleading expression as his ears were out to the side. Tears were beginning to form in his eyes as the silence after grew longer. "_Would I?_" He added a little more shrilly, hoping that they would answer him positively.

Shadow paused for a moment, remembering that this Mephiles was very different than the one that had tried to warp his mind. This Mephiles was his friend, who regarded him in the way you would to an older brother.

Shadow bit down on his lip and said, shaking his head: "No… you wouldn't…"

Mephiles gave a small relieved smile, because he was beginning to worry. Taking another deep breath, he slumped backwards into the backrest of the couch, and nodded slowly, clawed fingers of one hand resting on one side of his forehead.

"So you believe me?"

"But, that's just the thing…"

Mephiles froze slightly this time. He lifted his ears up to hear better, unease starting to take hold.

"W-why?" He tried not to stammer.

"Well… see, Meph… Dark _died_ when you drowned. He's supposed to be gone. Are you sure you didn't just imagine it?"

"Are you suggesting there is something wrong with me?" Mephiles said edgily, not believing what he was hearing. "Need I remind you about the 'evaluation'? I checked out fine… I was just traumatized. _That_ was a couple months ago. _Dark_ was nearly four months ago. I'm over it, but I tell you I _saw _him. He was standing _right_ there! Right where you are, right now. He didn't say exactly what he wanted, but I could tell he wanted _some_thing from me! I AM _NOT_ MAKING THIS UP!"

At the last sentence, he was on his feet, his hands clenched into fists, his quills and fur bristled once more. He was panting again, his ears flat, and his eyes tearing up again. He was frustrated that they weren't really listening to him, though this was very important to him that they understood.

It didn't seem like they did. And he was starting to feel dizzy as his emotions were becoming too much for him to handle.

Pressing his hand to his head, he pushed past Shadow as he made his way to and out the door, where he stepped under the shade of the tree. He slumped his back against it and slid down to where he was sitting, his hand still on his head. He tried to focus on his breathing, on making it slower and more stable to help his dizziness subside.

Ignoring the bewildered looks from his friends, he switched breathing in and out of his nose and closed his eyes.

Maybe they were right. Maybe he did imagine it. Maybe it was just another bad dream. After all… _why _would Dark be back?

He removed his hand from his head and moved it down towards the side of his neck… and winced.

It felt like there was a bruise there… right where…

Mephiles' eyes widened. He shook his head frantically and screamed as loud as he could.

* * *

Is it true? Is Dark really back, or is Mephiles losing his mind again? You'll just have to wait and see :D (Damn, I'm evil!)


	2. Panic Attack!

Okay... so I'm back on track...

One thing I can say about this chapter is: "Total Angst-fest!"

Seriously... leave me to my own time and devices, and I will give you something worth reading!

Hope you like this chapter :D

* * *

The way he was screaming alarmed Shadow and Rouge. To them, it was sudden, and frightened. They were half right… he was indeed terrified, but it was not at all sudden. To him, it was proof enough that it had not been a figment of his imagination last night. It was enough proof that he was telling the truth.

But right now… he was scared.

He clamped his hands onto his head and screeched, curling into a defensive ball, quills bristled outward instinctively. Tremors ran throughout his entire body, so much that he rolled onto his side. His dizziness became full blown vertigo, and he didn't dare try to sit up. He curled up tighter, ignoring the murmurs of the neighborhood around him.

His eyes were squeezed shut, and at the moment… he didn't know where he was. He didn't know why he was outside. He even almost forgot his name…

All he knew was Dark was back, and no one was going to believe him.

As a shortness of breath began to overtake him, his screaming subsided somewhat and became moaning whimpers. His heart was beating faster…_ painfully _in fact. He lowered a hand to his chest and gripped at his patch of white fur tightly as a spasm of pain spiked through his heart. He was breathing deeply and quickly; each breath took less than a second. He knew without opening his eyes that his vision would be impaired, either doubled or darkening.

He was having a panic attack, and possibly his worst one yet.

All he could hear were murmurs and muffled sounds, as if his ears had decided not to work right. He felt hands reaching against him, and trying to pull him elsewhere, though he did not know where. Within a few minutes, he felt something damp and cool be placed across his burning forehead, and he shivered once more as a quick cold flash ran through him before he passed out once again.

* * *

"… said to have seen someone… we've known is gone…"

"… I see… this happened?"

"… Started last night… said he saw… morning, started screaming…"

Mephiles strained his ears to hear what was going on around him. He heard voices… some were Shadow and Rouge… a couple he did not know. His head hurt him terribly, and he felt a little sick. He felt too weak to roll over, or even open his eyes.

"… panic attack just this morning… he used to have them often… first one in a couple of months…"

"… think he's running a fever now…"

"… We'll see what we can do…"

Do? Do what? Where was he? Certainly not back at the house. He could tell he was lying on a bed of some sort. He twitched his ears a little to pick up any other sounds.

Beeps… whirs… clicks… someone being paged over an intercom…

His heart started to sink…

He forced his eyes to open, and the brightness of the room almost made him squeeze them tight again.

He was in a hospital…

He whimpered and inched back, away from everyone. He had a fear of hospitals… afraid that he was going to be treated like an experiment there; samples and stuff being picked off of him, and tests being run for everything that _could_ be wrong with him.

Upon hearing his whine of distress, everyone's attention was turned to him, which was from Rouge, Shadow, a doctor… and his Chaos.

_They must have brought them with them because Rae wasn't around…_ Mephiles thought to himself once he laid eyes on Krystal and Sharpe.

"W-what's going on? Why am I here?" He started to ask, his voice fading from upset to demanding as the questions pressed on. "What happened? _How did I get here?!_"

He was a little jittery… hospitals made his skin crawl. He didn't like the lack of color schemes either… too much white…

_Would it kill them to buy some decent colors?_ He questioned inwardly, his face not giving an indication that this was going through his mind. _Like maybe some blue or purple… that wouldn't be as nerve-racking as pure white!_

He fixed his eyes on each of them in turn, save for his Chaos. It would have been silly to think they knew… they weren't around earlier this morning…

He was on his hands and knees, waiting on baited breath for their response.

Shadow began.

"Mephiles… are you aware of what happened _before _you woke up?"

"I was having a panic attack…"

"And you knew this because..?"

"Why..?" Mephiles wasn't seeing where this was going. "I'm pretty sure I know when I'm having a panic attack…"

"Just answer the question… we're trying to help…"

"I knew that because I couldn't breathe right, I was feeling very dizzy, and I was having chest pains. I was shaking, and I felt my body temperature heat up… I couldn't really hear or see either…" Mephiles blinked. Why was this important? He's had them before…

"But do you know what set it off? I mean, that's your first one in two months… that's kinda scary. And it seemed like it was borderline 'heart attack'…"

"It was a _panic_ attack… I'm very much sure of it…"

"But what set it off… your usual trigger is extreme fright… as in the kind you feel when you think you life is in danger…"

Mephiles snorted through his nose.

"So_ now_ you're gonna listen to me?"

"Is this about Dark?"

"_Of course it's about Dark!_" Mephiles snapped at him. He saw Krystal and Sharpe flinched out of the corner of his eye, so he softened his tone. "I saw him last night, and he was there for at least ten minutes before he knocked me out! Hit a pressure point, he did!" He tilted his head to the side a bit to show the bruise.

"Okay…" Said Shadow, being the only one talking at the moment, save for his shady counterpart. "But the question is _why?_ Why would Dark be back and why only show up when no one else is around?"

"_I don't know!_ He didn't tell me, he never does anything but mess with my head!" Mephiles leaned back and sat down properly, folding his arms against his chest, and putting on a pouting face. He was getting really frustrated at this… he was telling the truth, but everyone wanted to contradict him or prove him wrong.

"So, who is this 'Dark'?" The doctor asked.

Mephiles cocked an eyebrow. This doctor was porcupine, if his guess was right. Dark brown with his long quills tipped with creamy white and black. Dark blue eyes and a set of square frame glasses resting on the bridge of his nose.

"And _you_ are...?"

"Thizon. Dr. Eric Thizon."

"I don't like 'Doctors'… don't take it personally… I just don't…"

"Dark was a separate entity in his mind a few months back…" Shadow explained for him. "As his name suggests… he was pretty evil…"

"A separate personality?"

Mephiles started. He saw where this was going…

Before he could open his mouth to tell off the porcupine, and explain that Dark was not a part of him… Shadow beat him to it.

"No, he was… for lack of a better term… a demon. He tormented Mephiles a great deal a few months ago…"

"A… demon? As in… possession?"

Shadow, Rouge, and Mephiles shook their heads in unison.

"Not quite…" Shadow continued as Mephiles glared at the other quilled one. "They controlled the same mind and body, because they were created as one. Dark disappeared after Mephiles drowned, and was dead for about six minutes. He hasn't been heard from since… at least, until Meph mentioned him this morning…"

"How did they end up being in the same mind and body?"

"Thizon…" Shadow sighed, rolling his eyes. "You are aware of my heritage… right?"

"Half Black Arm alien hedgehog hybrid due to experimentations in search of an Ultimate Lifeform… yes… I know that, Shadow…"

Mephiles was a little bewildered that he would know that, before Rouge explained, unheard by anyone other than the shade, that that was also Shadow's doctor as well. It was unknown to Mephiles, because Shadow didn't need to have a check up as often as other Mobians.

"Meph here is also a result of experiments. He was, emphasis on 'was'…" Shadow added, seeing Mephiles start to fidget. "… The shadow and conscious half of an artificial sun god. The experiment for the sun god, Solaris, was unstable, and that's how we got Mephiles. Now, from our own experience… wouldn't make sense that if anything could have happened that was unstable for say… genetic make up, or some such… that two beings can reside in one mind and body?"

"I suppose… given what we've seen in Westopolis before…"

"So Dark was completely different than Meph, and was pretty much the Anti-Mephiles… Dark was not any indication that Meph would have a split-personality… if that was what you were thinking. We've had him evaluated, just for safety's sake, and he checked out great. He just suffers from trauma from earlier in his life…"

Mephiles couldn't have said it better himself. He stuck his tongue out in the way of saying: "I win!" and grinned.

"Still…" Thizon said skeptically, Mephiles not liking the tone of his voice. "If you say Dark is gone… then isn't it possible that he may have been having a visual hallucination? Auditory, as well?"

"Don't see why he would…"

"Has he had them before?"

At that moment, Mephiles felt his stomach turn uncomfortably. A couple of months ago, he was delusional and having hallucinations that he was back at the day of his creation. During that time, he had bitten, scratched, and tried to hit Shadow in his hysteria. He had even run away, screaming about stuff that at the time, only made sense to him. But that was all because of a bad nightmare that he couldn't quite break free from until he was helped.

He clenched his teeth together when he saw Shadow and Rouge nod slowly.

"Does he have a history of them?"

To Mephiles' immense relief… they shook their heads.

"It was a one time thing…" Rouge confirmed.

"If that was the case… then I suggest we let him stay home for now. I don't really see a reason to keep him overnight…"

No words could describe Mephiles' joy upon hearing that… he did _not_ want to stay in a hospital overnight…

He got off the bed quickly, breathing a visible sigh of relief.

"Thank you, anyway…" He added as the group left for home, his Chaos close behind him.

* * *

It was night within a few hours. Mephiles was glad… to be frank; he was quite drained from this whole mess.

He had fallen asleep a smidge earlier than normal, mainly because his head still hurt a bit. He was told that his head probably hurt as a side effect of his panic attack. It was likely… he's had that happen before…

Curled up on his side on the couch, his back to the T.V…. he was snoozing quite soundly. He was too tired to grab a hold of his pillow before he drifted off, so it lay under his head.

His nose twitched when Rouge had pulled a blanket over him, and he mumbled something incoherent before fading off into a light snore. Krystal and Sharpe were not tired yet, so they simply sat on the top edge of the back of the couch and watched him.

"I'm worried about him…" Rouge said as she sat down in a chair across from Shadow in the kitchen.

"As am I, Rouge…" Shadow said through a sip of tea. He swallowed. "That was the worst of his panic attacks I have ever seen. I seriously thought he was having a _heart_ attack… the way he was clutching at his chest and all…"

He sipped his tea again.

"What if Dark _was_ back?" He added.

"I dunno… It could be possible… after all the stuff we've seen in the past year _alone…_"

"Aliens, time travelers, princesses with mystic powers, demons… yep… we've seen them all…"

Pause.

"Have you heard from Omega?" Shadow added.

"Haven't seen him since the end of the whole 'brain' thing" Rouge air quoted, as they were beginning to just give it a short term to refer to the first week they met Mephiles. "He just disappears sometimes… found him in a jungle, last time…"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah…"

"Weird…"

Pause again as Shadow set his mug down.

Something was about to be said again… but a **THUMP** and an ear piercing shriek was heard from the living room, as well as numerous things falling down as flashes of purple light were seen.

Kicking his chair to the side, Shadow beat Rouge to the living room by a few seconds.

Pages from many books were fluttering down in shredded strips all around the room. Picture frames and glass lay shattered on the floor, and Krystal and Sharpe had ducked behind the couch while taking cover, now peering over the top edge at Mephiles along with Rouge and Shadow.

He seemed to have fallen off the couch, and was now sitting up, his knees hugged to his chest while he sat on the blanket. His muzzle was paler than usual, _much_ paler in fact. He was shaking terribly, as if he was plagued by a constant chill that spread throughout his body. His breaths were coming in as wheezy pants, with a pattern only broken by an occasional gulp. His eyes were wide… as wide as they ever got. His cheek twitched and his ears were flat as well.

He broke free from his trance and lifted his gaze to them slowly, turning his head. The light from the kitchen was showing them that he was sweating profusely, and overall, he looked positively ill.

An unnerved expression graced his face. Tears formed in his eyes and began to fall without him having to blink. He clenched his teeth together and lowered his head, his hands reaching up to his ears and pulling them down more.

A deep sob escaped him, one not as shrill as his others. Nowhere near…

His body shuddered as the next one came. And the next. And the next. And the next…

He felt someone place a hand on his shoulder and he heard Rouge ask: "… Are you okay..?"

Obviously not… but it was a standard question. What _else_ are you supposed to say?

Mephiles shook his head slowly and felt himself get pulled forward a bit, and was shifted into a safe and secure feeling hug, one hand petting his quills to calm him down. He whimpered and choked on his breath as he buried his face in his hands, too upset to stop crying.

He felt weak and sick… _dizzy_ above all… faint even…

He fell limp after a moan that was meant to be a whimper, his eyes drooping as one last thought flashed through his mind…

_They probably won't believe me…_

* * *

Wow... just... wow...

The way I write this... you'd think this has happened to me before, or something... but it hasn't...

A note about Thizon... I messed around with the scientific name for North American Porcupine to get him. I figured a porcupine would be a nice deviation from the basic animals I've added. I don't plan on him making a huge part in the series... but he may make another cameo...

Anybody here getting "Haunted" vibes around here? As in Teen Titans and Evanescense "Haunted"? ;D


	3. Blankout

Sorry... but this one's a bit shorter than average...

Not much... just some character development in the form of angst...

Enjoy :D

* * *

When he started to wake up, he tried to sit up… only to feel a hand plant onto his chest and push him back down.

Bewildered before he could fully comprehend why and open his eyes… he tried again and was pushed back down gently.

He fluttered his eyes open and saw that it was Shadow holding him down. He blinked and instinctively tried to sit up again, but was held down firmly.

"Might want to stop before you exhaust yourself…" Shadow said calmly as Mephiles shifted his gaze to stare at him fixedly. "… You're running a terrible fever, now… you don't want to move so much…"

"… I'll be _fine…_" Mephiles growled as he pushed Shadow's hand off of his chest and shifted his weight a bit to prop himself onto his arm. Shadow shook his head.

"No… you are _not_ fine… you were tripping out and having a panic attack yesterday… last night, you got spooked and you powers sparked off and destroyed numerous books, picture frames and who _knows_ what else… you are _far _from fine…"

"… You'd be on edge too if you were my position…" Mephiles muttered heatedly.

"I assume you are going to say that this one was Dark?"

"It was a nightmare this time… so, yes _and_ no…"

"A nightmare?"

"That's what I assume you're gonna tell me it was…"

"And was it to you?"

"I dunno… can't really trust my brain, now… can we?"

This last part was bitter, as if he was really resentful towards Shadow at the moment.

"Look… I _wish_ I could believe you… but I mean… Dark's gone. There's no way he could be back…"

"And _why_ not?" Mephiles' eyes flashed angrily as he grasped the backrest of the couch and pulled himself up with some difficulty. "See… that's the problem with most Humans and Mobians… If they can't see it… it's not real to them…"

"C'mon… you _know_ that's not true…"

"No, Shadow…" Mephiles shifted his gaze back to Shadow and locked it with his. "No… the sad thing is I don't. I _don't _know anything but what I know… and if I'm told that all that I've known is a lie… don't you think I _might_ be a little upset about that? I mean… what else have I been lied to about? Because I'm telling the truth to the people I trust, and they just flat out won't believe me… Because no one believes me, does that make me a liar? Because I'm the only one who saw him?"

Before Shadow could respond, Mephiles cut across him and spoke a little louder.

"I only trust three people, two Chaos and a dog. That's six altogether… half of which can't even talk to me. You're one of the six, and to me… it's very important that you trust what I tell you…"

"Why?"

"Why?" Mephiles repeated, shaking his head in disbelief. "_Why?_ Isn't it obvious? Shadow… for the past nine months and then some… I have been trying to gain your trust because I want to be your friend. Sometimes, I think you think of me as somewhat as a little brother… and other times… I'm not so sure. It's not enough that you have to at least _act_ like you don't hate me… but you have to listen to what I'm trying to say, if I think that it's important. Friendship is also about the trust. I have trusted you to save me from danger, which you have yet to let me down. You have helped me and saved me from _myself_ even… and for that… I trust you. But you don't seem to fully trust me…"

The uncomfortable silence was enough to prove his point.

"You're not really sure if you do, hmm?" He added, figuring this hit it dead on.

It seemed to have. Mephiles waited patiently. And waited… and waited… and finally heaved a sigh.

"Look… what I'm trying to warn you against is…" He paused for a moment and tried a different approach. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A small purple orb appeared above it. "Remember these? Threw them at you the first week? This is how they are with just my Chaos energy after the Emerald incident… small… but can possibly singe your fur off… only that, nothing more. So they burn…"

"Kay…"

"Dark amplified them, and made them the kind you remember. His combined power with mine makes them more dangerous… or rather… I barely add to it at all. He adds to the power… I provide the orbs. This guy is really, really… _really _dangerous. And last time, he just wanted _you_ dead…"

"Why me?"

"I think that he hates you now for the same reason I once did." Mephiles paused for a moment and quivered at the next thing he was going to mention. His quills started to stand on end again. "You have no idea what I heard from him… what he _made _me hear… how he would do it… how long or short he could make it last… whether or not you could see it coming. Only _I_ heard this… every bit of it, because he had total control over me. All I could do was listen and plead. _Beg_ at some points. He was even willing to give up an Emerald just to kill you… he was going to make me watch…"

As the words came to an end on this explanation, his tone faded some, and he shifted his gaze to the floor.

Another pause and the subject was changed quickly when his face paled.

"… I suddenly don't feel very well…" He shook his head as he wrapped his arms around his stomach, another tremor running through him. Truth was that the thought of the things he said about what Dark would do and have done had caused his stomach to turn uncomfortably. In reality, he wasn't as sick as he felt, but all the same… he felt like he should tell Shadow that. After all… he was already worried about him, right?

"Like what kind of 'not very well'?" Shadow asked, a little worried by this sudden symptom. It was somewhat of a fact that Mephiles did not deal with illness very well, mainly because of his somewhat reversed immune system. Side effect of being a natural born lab-rat… he would often find himself cursing the Soleanna scientists for even _thinking_ about starting the "Solaris Project".

"… It's hard to say exactly…" Mephiles tilted his head and fixed his gaze to be just over the T.V. "… Not _bad…_ but not good either… I think it was just because of what I was remembering… I'm feeling a little better now…" He gave a weak smile, showing that he was fine.

Still… Shadow was skeptical. He hadn't forgotten Mephiles' fever…

However… Mephiles seemed to have. Or rather… was only slightly aware of it.

He got off the couch for a moment… and paused.

"… What was I… doing… again..?" He said confusedly, an eyebrow cocked, and his head tilted to the side again.

Confusion…

Worry sign…

Mephiles never gets confused…

Red flag…

Shadow caught him by the arm and led him back to the couch, and pushed him back onto it gently.

Mephiles didn't seem to notice. Didn't seem to really notice Shadow either, at the time being. His eyes were gaining a far off, daydreaming kind of look, glazing over as he froze.

One second…

This was really familiar…

Two seconds…

Shadow was sure he saw this happen before…

Three seconds…

Mephiles is silent… staring right past Shadow…

Four seconds…

He's not moving…

Five… Six…

Shadow's starting to catch on…

Seven… Eight…

First time in four months…

Nine seconds…

Mephiles was starting to twitch now…

Ten seconds…

Mephiles shook his head lightly and looked up, puzzlement etched all over his face.

"… Wha… wasn't I just standing..?" He asked slowly, shifting his eyes around nervously.

There was no mistaking it… Mephiles just had his first absence seizure in four months…

His first one since Dark disappeared…

Mephiles suddenly caught on about this and started to shake uncontrollably...

* * *

So... what do you think? Is Dark really back... or what? Strange things are starting to happen...

Tell me if you like :D


	4. Breaking Point

Y'know... I dunno why... but I really love this chapter. It's one of my deepest ones yet. Just so you know... it's a little (or a lot) sad... because I think I was finally able to write Mephiles in this kind of position, and make it believable...

I hope you like it...

* * *

"Meph?" Shadow asked the crystalline hedgehog slowly and worriedly. He was the only one around right now… so if something happened… he was on his own…

Mephiles was still shaking.

His last absence seizures were during his time under Dark's influence. It was thought that Dark was the cause of them. After all, they only appeared and disappeared when he was there, and left… respectively.

He racked through his brain, hoping not to find what he thought might be there. But, of course… if he was… he might not answer. But it was the only thing Mephiles could think of.

Letting thoughts bounce around every corner, he awaited an answer.

…

Nothing…

…

Not good enough, though…

Nowhere _near_ good enough…

"Meph?"

He jumped. He had momentarily forgotten Shadow was still there.

Mephiles lifted his ears only a slight degree and stared at him with an empty expression, as if he had lost all emotions… or forgot how to show them.

"Are you _okay?_" Shadow asked, starting to get anxious about this behavior. Mephiles was beginning to act weird.

Mephiles looked away for a moment or two, shifting his gaze to various spots on the floor with frantic speed, his eyes steadily getting wider as the time passed. With a blink, he was now looking at the ceiling, scanning his eyes back and forth.

"… No… I'm not…" He finally said slowly, eyes not resting on Shadow, but still scanning the room. "… Did… d-did you… _hear _that?" He added uneasily.

"… Hear what?"

His ears flickered, much like they did when he heard that Shadow Android long before it reached them. But they didn't fix on a point, like the last time, but instead continued to swivel and twitch as he tried to locate whatever it was he heard.

"… I thought I heard…" He trailed off and shook his head lightly, frowning to himself. "… Never mind… that's impossible… _preposterous… _it would make no sense…" He was starting to talk to himself as he started to ignore Shadow.

He stood up from the couch, ignoring his previous weakness he had had in his body, and began to pace up and down the room, Shadow stepping back before he was nearly shoved out of the way.

Mephiles mumbled under his breath, so the true words were as good as anyone's guess. He shook his head occasionally as he tugged at an ear.

"Mephiles… would you mind telling me what's going on?" Shadow said, hopefully loud enough to break the shade's attention and get a straight answer.

"… _Trying to make them think I'm crazy?_" He whispered to himself, furrowing his brow in question. This was not aimed at Shadow. He continued on, oblivious to Shadow's growing impatience. "_… Why won't you leave me alone..? I've done nothing to you… _He's _done nothing to you… why..? wh… why…_" His words faded and he stopped pacing, stopped talking… stopped thinking…

Shadow couldn't take it anymore, waiting for a straight answer…

He seized the immobile Mephiles by the shoulders and pulled him towards him to where they were nose-to-nose, eye-to-eye, face-to-face… you get the idea…

"Just _tell_ me what's going on so I can help you!" Shadow growled impatiently.

Mephiles didn't answer. He was unable to at the moment…

His eyes were glazed over, giving him a daydreaming kind of look to his expression. His mouth was half open and he was breathing as if he has just fallen asleep with his eyes half opened.

He started to fidget now, his hands coming up to his chest and wringing each other in turn. He shook his head a fraction of an inch to either side, a movement that could have very well been a twitch. He blinked, and his eyes started to clear up.

He blinked several more times and finally locked gazes with Shadow. The two hedgehogs were silent for the longest time. Neither move, nor spoke… nothing…

Mephiles suddenly shivered… then quivered… then shuddered and finally… trembled. He broke eye contact with Shadow and shoved him away forcefully; as if afraid something bad as going to happen to either of them.

"… _Stay away from me…_" Mephiles whispered, his voice laced with panic. "_… Please… just stay away…_"

"What's going on with you?"

Before Mephiles could answer, something very strange happened. He lifted his gaze to look at Shadow for a moment, and Shadow did not see Mephiles looking back.

It _was_ Mephiles standing in front of him. It was Mephiles who had been the one talking to him. But the one behind the eyes was _not _Mephiles. Not in the very least.

Once their gazes locked, Shadow saw an incalculable amount of loathing and depraving coupled with anger. An amount that the Mephiles _he_ knew would never even think about. And _all_ of it was directed towards him…

"… Mephiles?" Shadow asked anxiously, hoping to reach him before this progressed.

The one before him blinked and in an instant, the mood behind the eyes changed. With a harsh gasp, Mephiles backed away quickly, frightened as he had never been before.

His eyes were wide open. He had opened his mouth to scream, but his voice died in his throat, coming out instead as a strangled moan. Every inch of his fur was on end, right down to his crystal tipped tail, which was tucked between his legs the way a dog does when scared. The fur on his face was glistening with the sweat that was beginning to drip off of him.

Not long after this reaction, he shot his hands up to his ears and yanked them down, screaming.

"NO..! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, _NO!_" His voice escalated to it highest point as thick tears flowed freely down his face and spattered onto the floor as he sank to his knees. "THIS ISN'T HAPPENING! THIS ISN'T _HAPPENING! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT!_"

Had Shadow not been there… Mephiles might have ended up seriously injured. Because what had happened next was quite startling and very dangerous to his well being…

Mephiles began striking his own head into the edge of the coffee table…

"WHOA! _HEY!_" Shadow wasted no time in catching him by the head before the fourth hit. "_Stop_ it! This isn't going to solve _any_thing!"

Mephiles gave him a pained look and pulled free just long enough to get another hit. Shadow grabbed him by the shoulders and wrenched him away from the small wooden table and shoved him to the ground for Mephiles' own safety, pinning him by his arms to be sure.

"Slamming your head into something isn't going to help you…" Shadow said edgily, angry with Mephiles for even thinking about doing that. "… You're lucky you didn't give yourself brain damage or kill yourself…"

Mephiles didn't seem fazed by this notion. If anything… he seemed like he lost hope… or already died a little inside.

"… What if that's what I was _trying_ to do..?" He murmured, his eyes dead behind them.

"I'd think you'd gone off the deep end!" Shadow responded to such a statement. "C'mon… you're _better_ than that! What happened to not giving in? What happened to trying to change? Are you just gonna give up now?"

"… It's hopeless… I'll never be free of him… Of Dark, I mean… he's in my head right now… he's back and worst than last time…"

Mephiles tilted his head back to look above him, fixing his eyes on something that Shadow could not see.

Shadow wasn't going to let this be his answer.

"… Why are you giving up?" He growled, leaning closer. "… You already lasted four months… so why-"

Mephiles started to giggle in such a way that Shadow found this unsettling. Without warning, his laugh shifted into loud and fanatical… as if he suddenly found this all too unbearably hilarious.

"_Four_ months? Try my entire _life!_ Thirty minutes in and after!" He cackled madly, his voice echoing of the walls of the room. "I could have been _normal._ I could have had a life to _begin_ with. I could have_ never_ had this problem… I could have been a _lot_ of things… but _you_ took that chance away from me! I'm what I am because of _you!_ My burden is my problem because your messing with time made it so… and _I_ will choose what I want to do about it!"

He lifted his foot and kicked Shadow in the stomach to get him to let go. Shadow fell back, winded, but okay… if you forgot the fact his friend just lost all sense in himself.

Mephiles pulled away and grinned madly, his eyes shining with insanity as he tilted his head to the side. He was crouched down as he dug his claws into the carpet.

"… I'm sorry, Shadow… I really am…" He purred with a mix of mockery and regret, as if he was really trying to apologize… but he couldn't keep a hold on his mind long enough to stay serious. His eyes flickered around the room, as if looking for something. "… But I tried… I wanted to be like you… but it was just too much to ask of myself… I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused everyone… Goodbye… Tell Rouge 'Thank You'… Take care of Krystal and Sharpe for me, please… And tell Rae and Jak I'll miss them too…"

And with that said, he jumped up, shoved passed Shadow and out the door, his laugh still echoing long after he disappeared out of sight.

Shadow immediately grabbed the phone, which had fallen off the coffee table when Mephiles tried to hurt himself, and punched in seven numbers.

There was a couple of seconds of white noise before the dial tone sounded. Several rings and he finally got an answer.

"Hello?"

"Rouge…" Shadow took a deep breath and exhaled. "… Rouge… He's gone…"

"What?"

"_Mephiles!_ He just lost it and ran away! He tried to hurt himself about ten minutes ago, and I think he's going to hurt himself again if we don't find him soon…" Shadow explained, trying to make this as quick as possible. Every second they wasted was one closer to something horrible. He shook his head to clear those thoughts. "… I think Dark's really back… I saw him in Meph's eyes. Mephiles was terrified… that's why he tried to hurt himself. I think he thinks that offing himself is the only way to get rid of Dark now!"

"Are you _serious?!_"

"Would I make this up?!" Shadow yelled impatiently. "Look, the point is… if we don't find him soon… we might not find him until its too late…"

"Okay… You start looking now… and I'll look from overhead… I can cover more ground…"

"'Kay… see you _when_ we find him…" Shadow put an emphasis on "when", hoping for the best outcome.

"See ya then…"

Shadow nodded, hung up the phone and threw it to the side as he bolted out the door, not pausing to lock it, just close it.

Mephiles parting words replayed in his head as he started to head for any place he thought Mephiles would go to first.

…

… _I'm sorry, Shadow… I really am… But I tried… I wanted to be like you… but it was just too much to ask of myself… I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused everyone… Goodbye… Tell Rouge "Thank You"… Take care of Krystal and Sharpe for me, please… And tell Rae and Jak I'll miss them too…_

…

_You won't have to worry about that, Meph…_ Shadow said to himself as he skated on his hover blades as fast as he could. _… Because that's not gonna need to happen… just hold on a bit longer…_

* * *

Mephiles looked over the edge of the bridge.

Water was below. A _lot_ of water… so deep… and no way to be saved if Shadow found him…

_It has to be done…_

'_You can't be serious…'_

_Why not? You've taken everything I had left to call my sanity… you made me hurt people… you made me hurt my friends… you made me hurt myself… you made me a little monster…_

'_I did nothing of the sort! It was your own fault for being so weak! You could have fought against me… but you didn't… _that's _why _I'm_ the dominant trait…'_

Mephiles grasped at the edge of the low railing, and for the first time… marveled at the beauty of a river. He had been so caught up in his fear of water, that he never once stopped to look at it. It seemed such a shame to him now…

_You may be dominant, Dark… but _I_ was the one given the chance to be in full control. Maybe I _am _weak… if it has to come to this… but at least I won't be a problem anymore… And I can get rid of _you_… and keep my friends safe…_

Dark was silent. He hadn't expected Mephiles to even come up with this as a "solution". It seemed like for once… a plan of his backfired and blew up in his face horribly…

Mephiles continued to stare over the edge, watching the light shimmer off of the river, lighting it up with sparkles.

_Rae would have loved to see this sight…_ Mephiles thought randomly, and shuddered.

It had been nearly a few months since they almost lost Rae when she had taken a blow meant for Mephiles. They did lose her… but Mephiles was able to bring her back with a few Emeralds and some help.

Tears started to fall again, and he forced his eyes to stare at his hands, watching the concrete darken as his tears spattered against it.

_Sorry, Rae… I won't be coming back like last time… I wasted my chance… But don't think this is your fault… Everyone… this wasn't your fault… it was mine…_

He looked up again, and froze. Something was stopping him from stepping over… but he was alone…

His heart felt heavy as he took a deep breath and exhaled. His throat tightened painfully as he spoke the next words, his voice soft and tired…

"_I'm sorry…_"

* * *

...

I dunno about you... but I cried a bit while I wrote this. The part that hit me most is his parting words to Shadow... it not only shows how far he's come... but what he has worried about the most...

Gonna leave it at a cliffie until the next chapter is up...

See you next time...


	5. Just Push Away

Okay... so... this chapter is set up like a song fic...

I suggest you look up the song to get the feel it has so the chapter is more effective...

Remember... this is the remix from the Reanimation Album...

I actually was writting it some other Linkin Park songs... but when this one came up on my playlist... it just clicked!

Enjoy :D

* * *

**(Linkin Park's ****"P5hng Me Awy"****)**

**.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.**

**When I look into your eyes  
There's nothing there to see  
Nothing but my own mistakes  
Staring back at me**

His foot stepped back on its own.

"… Dark… leave me alone…" He growled to himself as his other foot stepped back again, this time, Mephiles fighting against it.

'_No… If you die… _I _die…'_

**(Repeat previous stanza backwards)**

**Everything has to end, you'll soon find, we're outta time, left to watch it all unwind  
Everything falls apart, even the people who never frown eventually break down**

"That's the point… it's the only way to stop this… the only way I can be sure you won't come back to hurt anyone anymore…"

Mephiles edged his foot forward, feeling a thrill of panic that was not his own rush through him.

**Everything has to end, you'll soon find, we're outta time, left to watch it all unwind  
Everything falls apart, even the people who never frown eventually break down**

"What's the matter, Dark?" Mephiles snorted, finding this both ironic and amusing. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything… I thought you said _I _was the weak one, and you weren't!"

'_You can't be serious! You're not supposed to-'_

"Suppose to _what?_ Huh? I'm not supposed to be able to overpower you like this?" He took another step, easier this time.

**I've lied  
To you**

'_Your free will shouldn't be able to override what I'm trying to make you do!'_

"See… that's just it… You just don't understand anything but what _you_ think is your way… I am determined to get rid of you at any cost, as long as the ones I care about don't get hurt… I'm not afraid of you anymore… I am Mephiles the Dark! I am what I am, and _you_ are not a part of it…"

He was grinning to himself now, ultimately determined to get this over with.

**This is the last smile  
That I'll fake for the sake of being with you  
(Everything falls apart, even the people who never frown eventually break down)  
(Everything has to end, you'll soon find, we're outta time, left to watch it all unwind) **

He had really hoped during these last nine or so months that Shadow had fully accepted him. He wasn't quite sure if he had… but the time just recently was possibly the clue that he was now over their previous problem that Shadow had held over his head for such a long time.

Shadow had tried to help… he did… but Mephiles felt that he was beyond saving…

"… I guess I'm not like him after all…"

**  
For sake of being with you  
(Everything falls apart, even the people who never frown eventually break down)  
The sacrifice is never knowing**

Mephiles almost took another step… but his muscles locked up suddenly. He couldn't move… he couldn't even speak. He could do nothing but blink and breathe.

'_If I can't stop you with fear…' _Dark said coolly. _'I can still lock up your body functions…'_

_Brilliant… _Mephiles said edgily. _So now what? Just gonna have me stand here forever? You can't keep me here…_

'_I can try…'_

That _sounds familiar… _Mephiles said offhandishly, suddenly remembering something. He mentally shook his head.

_It doesn't matter now…_

* * *

Shadow doubled back to the neighborhood, several houses from his own.

He was going to need as much help as they could get.

"Rae!" He pounded on the door, forgetting that there was a doorbell. "Rae! We need your help!"

The window from the second story slid open and the fox leaned out, fur ruffled a bit. Obviously, she was sleeping in, as it was a Saturday. She blinked and squinted.

"Huh..?"

Shadow explained the situation in one breath without pause. Immediately, Rae disappeared and the sound of feet against stairs was heard inside. As was a yip, and a couple of voices, one of which was Rae's. In half a minute, the door swung open, and Rae jumped out and down the steps, Jak in her arms and her black fur tufts ruffled still.

"Thanks Mom!" She called over her shoulder as she pocketed her phone in one of her tails. "Okay… one question, Shads… _Why?_"

"Why did I get you?"

"No… why did he run away? Why did he try to hurt himself? That doesn't sound like _our_ Mephy… what's up with him?"

**Why I stayed ****when**** you  
Just push away  
**

"I can explain as we go…"

"Fair…"

* * *

Rouge was hovering over some trees. Because of them… she couldn't see the ground clearly.

She cursed under her breath and tried to find a clearing.

"… Where would he have gone?" She shook her head and scanned the area with her eyes. Nothing that even suggested a crystal hedgehog was even near. Her hopes of finding the shade were fading some…

She shook her head.

"I can't let this happen… If I do… I'll never forgive myself! I just have to look harder… He has to be around…"

She continued on.

_Don't let us be too late…_

**No matter what you see  
You're still so blind to me**

* * *

**I've tried  
Like you  
To do everything you wanted to**

He measured the distance with his eyes.

It was at least a good twelve foot drop.

Twelve feet…

Nearly four times his height…

He wasn't really caring about the height. It could even be a hop worth of jumping for all he cared… as long as the water was deep enough…

He didn't want to suffer. He knew with water, your reaction time slowed down. It wouldn't really matter if you were in pain… your senses would be dulled anyway… you wouldn't feel it at all…

That's what he remembered about the last couple of times…

But, really… what happens after?

He knew last time was an exception for him. But… what happens when it's over?

This was a question he was both curious about… and feared it as well…

**This is the last time  
I'll take the blame for the sake of being with you  
(Everything falls apart, even the people who never frown eventually break down)  
The sacrifice of hiding in a lie  
(Everything has to end, you'll soon find, we're outta time, left to watch it all unwind)  
The sacrifice is never knowing**

* * *

**Why I stayed ****when**** you  
Just push away  
**

"He _didn't!_"

"I'm serious…"

Rae shook her head disbelievingly as Jak continued on ahead of them.

"I just find it hard to believe that he tried to hurt himself in front of you… or at all for that matter…"

**No matter what you see  
You're still so blind to me**

"Look, when we find him, you can see the bruises for yourself… Right now, though… we just have to find him."

"Maybe we should split up?"

"Good idea… cover-"

"More ground that way?" Rae finished for him before he blinked. He raised an eyebrow and Rae shrugged.

"So… when we find him… how do we let each other know?"

"We'll figure that out later… Just find him…"

"Gotcha…"

As Rae turned away to search another area, Shadow glimpsed the flash of light off of a piece of silver metal. He spotted a dog tag hanging from her neck on a ball chain. It was much different than her beaded Jak one.

"New necklace?"

"Dog tag. My brother gave it to me. I'll tell you about it later…"

And with a nod, the purple fox disappeared from view as she turned a corner…

* * *

**Reverse psychology's failing miserably  
It's so hard to be, left all alone  
**

Fear wasn't an option here…

He needed to make sure Dark was gone…gone for good… gone for real… gone forever…

**Telling you is the only chance for me  
There's nothing left but, to turn and face you**

It was only twelve feet…

…

Only?

…

One hundred and forty-four inches…

…

That makes it sound too much…

…

Four yards…

…

That made it sound a little nicer…

…

He'd curl into a ball if he had to…

...

If only he could move…

…

If only he was able to step forward…

…

If only Dark wasn't trying to stop him…

…

And let him move…

…

He couldn't…

…

But he could try…

**When I look into your eyes, there's nothing there to see  
Nothing but my own mistakes staring back at me  
Asking why...**

He inched forward a bit…

…

Dark yelped…

******The sacrifice of hiding in a lie (why)  
The sacrifice is never knowing**

* * *

_Think, Shadow… _Think!

Shadow was running out of places.

No go on the comic shop…

Or the park…

Or the even the area outside of Westopolis…

_He has to be somewhere!_

But where?

_Think… if he wanted to off himself… where would he think is the best place?_

Shadow thought as he scanned his eyes up and down the streets, checking alleyways, and even back lots…

_He probably would go to…_

_He'd…_

Shadow stopped cold.

"No…" He shook his head. "He'd have to be ment-"

Then Shadow remembered that Mephiles _was_ mental at the moment… Willing to do _any_thing to…

Shadow swore loudly and whipped around to change directions and headed further away from Central Downtown Westopolis.

If his guess was right… he was sure to find him…

The real question now was…

…

How much time was left before it was "Too Late"?

* * *

Rae paused next to a tree and scratched an ear in thought.

"Where would he be?"

Jak sniffed at the ground… and couldn't get a clear trail.

"This isn't _like _him…" She said, quite confused, looking around for something.

She realized she could climb up the tree for a better view of the area, and see past the other trees and bushes. She huffed at herself for not thinking of that sooner… but then again, her brain tended to function different when she hadn't taken her pill in the morning. She had forgotten before she ran out the door, and was now regretting her scattered thoughts.

She started to scale the tree, Jak whimpering for her to pick him up.

"Sorry, Jak… it's too high… If you fell… well… I wouldn't forgive myself if you got hurt…"

Jak backed off of the trunk and huffed at her, snorting through his snout.

"Get mad all you want…" Rae said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head, being sure to not look down. "As your friend… I said 'No.'… Period…"

She kept her eyes upward until she tested and found a steady branch to stand on. Sighing deeply, she kept both hands to the truck once her brain realized she was not on the ground anymore.

She didn't really have a fear of heights… she just disliked having both feet off the ground, as well as what might happen if she fell. She's had close calls, and ended up okay after several risky drops… but she didn't like to push her luck…

Violet eyes scanned the area, her mind set to spot out any sparkles, shines, or flashes that may happen off of her friend's quills. Her mind threatened to wander of into thought, but she forced it back with her goal.

One thing was always certain with Rae… if she wanted something to be done… she will make _sure_ it gets done, not stopping until that task was at it's end.

Her task right now was finding Mephiles… and _nothing_ more…

* * *

His foot was on the edge. He had managed to climb onto the ledge, and was now staring at the river below him.

He estimated a couple seconds drop… followed by a couple more to sink… and about a few minutes to fade…

Less than five minutes… and it would be done…

Dark was protesting…

How ironic… the tables seem to have turned now.

He was in control this time… and _Dark_ was the one pleading.

He started to snicker…

It was just so funny to him…

The last humorous thing he would know before he was at his end…

******Why I stayed ****when******** you  
Just push away  
**

He clenched his hands and blinked his vision clearer. He sighed as his last tears fell.

"… Though… I'll admit… It was nice… to have had all this… the… _every_thing… what I didn't have before… I… Thank you… everyone… but… I'm sorry…"

******No matter what you see  
You're still so blind to me  
**

He closed his eyes and leaned his weight into his foot, toppling over the edge just as the red streaked, black hedgehog found him.

Shadow's eyes widened and his run changed to a sprint, sparks shooting from his shoes as the metal scraped the pavement of the street.

"_No!_" Shadow had reached the ledge too late and could only watch in horror as Mephiles fell into the water, not putting up a fight to save himself, or even letting a startled cry escape him.

To Shadow, it was like the ARK all over again…

A friend was losing their life in front of him, while all he could do was watch, unable to help, because he couldn't.

All for his own safety…

******Why I stayed ****when******** you  
Just push away**

He slammed his fist into the ledge, causing a dent to form into the concrete.

He had failed again…

He couldn't get there in time… and for that… it was over…

He buried his face in one hand, shaking his head.

******No matter what you see  
You're still so blind to me**

Maybe if they had believed Mephiles when he told them about Dark…

Maybe…

Maybe this wouldn't have happened…

If anyone could see the Ultimate Lifeform right now…

…

…

They'd see the tears falling down his face…

* * *

Like... holy crap!

This was intense...

But, lucky for you... this isn't the end of the story ;D

See you next chapter :D


	6. Not Over Yet

Can't leave it at such a clifhanger... so here's chapter 6...

Hope you like it :D

* * *

Water was all around him. He was drifting to the bottom… letting out his last breath slowly and watching the bubbles drift upwards with indifference…

He stayed quite still as he fell, Dark's voice echoing and screaming at him in his mind.

…

…

He didn't care… it was all going to be over anyway…

* * *

Shadow tightened his hand even more, resting the knuckles of his fist on the concrete as he shuddered.

…

Mephiles had only wanted to be his friend over the past nine months.

He tried… but Shadow had initially rejected him until a few months ago…

…

Despite the fact Shadow was very resentful towards him for half a year…

He still tried…

He tried to find things they had in common…

He tried to win his approval…

He fought against an inner demon with the thought of Shadow's (and everyone elses'…) safety in mind…

He tried to tell Shadow, to warn him about Dark… of what could happen…

But something had made Shadow ignore him… try to prove him wrong…

…

Why?

Why had he done that to Mephiles?

Why did he contradict everything the shade was trying to tell him?

…

This was his fault…

He could have listened…

He _should _have listened…

But he didn't…

And now Mephiles has done it…

He's doomed himself…

Just to save everyone…

…

…

But wait…

"… There's still time…" Shadow looked up. "… He might not be so far down… but… I can't…"

Peering over the edge of the bridge, he watched the motionless shape of Mephiles sink lower slowly.

It had been at least nine or so months since Shadow had last tried to swim. That particular incident led to him sinking like a rock…

His hover skates were heavy. The metal made up most of their weight, but it had never mattered to Shadow before now…

_If I take off my skates… I wonder if… hmm…_

Shadow undid the rings around his ankles to allow his feet to slip out of his shoes. He set them aside and left his anklet rings off. They would just add a little to his weight. He also removed his gloves, but kept his ring bracelets around his wrists, not wanting to risk anything with him… two should suffice.

He took a couple steps back and ran to the ledge, jumping over and curling into a ball. He hit the water with a **SPLASH** and uncurled to start to swim towards Mephiles, who was now at least ten feet down.

He hoped he'd be able to use Chaos Control for the both of them if he couldn't get them up…

* * *

Mephiles saw the spiky quilled form hit the water, and saw it coming towards him.

His brain was getting too fogged up to even comprehend that was Shadow right away…

A couple bubbles escaped his mouth as his eyes widened in shock.

… _No… Sh-shadow… You… you can't swim… Don't…_

His eyes rolled back as his body started to weaken and shut down. As he shut his eyes, he couldn't feel the hand that was closing around his wrist, nor the arm that wrapped around his chest to brace him for what would happen next…

The last bit of air in his lungs exhaled out and his body lost it's feeling…

…

… _Sha… dow…_

…

…

…

…

…

…

… _no_ …

…

…

…

* * *

_Chaos… CONTROL!_

Shadow screamed that in his head, not able to speak, and hoped it would work. He didn't have an Emerald with him, so he had to rely on both his and Mephiles' internal Chaos energy…

…

… A flash of red...

…

They were under the tree by the river, the bridge overhead. Both were dripping with water, which was draining from both their quills and their fur. Mephiles had started cough up the water in his lungs, his body spasming as the liquid spattered against the grass and onto his hands. Shadow was breathing heavily, still somewhat shocked that he was able to do that…

Not just Chaos Control with two people without an Emerald… but actually _swim_ for a short distance… just long enough to get to Mephiles…

Mephiles wasn't too pleased with his rescue, however. Immediately after his coughing fit had subsided… he was trashing against Shadow's hold, trying to pull away… fighting against his hold, tooth and nail…

His claws dug into Shadow's arm as his teeth sank into the hybrid hedgehog's hand.

Shadow let go once the burning sting registered in his brain. He cried out in pain as Mephiles pushed away from him, his eyes dark and angry.

They flashed a poisonous shade of green and the "whites" deepened for a moment as he looked down at Shadow. He bared his teeth and raised a crystal claw to one of his own wrists, keeping it just above a vital spot, which was unprotected by any layers of crystals, because that was the place of transition…

"… _I didn't want to have to do this Shadow…_" He growled in a low voice, keeping his eyes fixed on his fellow drenched hedgehog. "_… but, if you keep trying to stop this… I'll have to…_"

He extended his four other claws, and curled them as he rested them on his skin.

"… _I'm sorry, Shadow… but it's for the best…_"

Upon hearing that, Shadow's eyes lit up a bright red, and both them, and his stripe markings did as his body began to glow a dim red…

He had tapped into his dark Chaos powers without doing much of anything except becoming furious at his shadow's notion. Without his anklet rings, Shadow was more likely to power up on his rage.

In a blink, he Chaos Snapped behind Mephiles, and wrenched his hand away from his wrist forcefully, Mephiles barely having time to turn around…

He raised his hand to bring it about Mephiles face, and Mephiles raised his free hand to slash him in the face…

…

…

_**SMACK!!**_

…

…

A hand had made contact with Mephiles' face before he could react. His head turned to the side on impact, his cheek and the entire right side of his head flaring up in pain as his eyes stayed wide while he was in total shock.

Shadow's eyes widened as well. He looked down at Mephiles, who was hanging loosely in his grip, the shade's eyes lightening in color, and started to shimmer.

But, Shadow's hand was still in the air…

Mephiles brought a hand to Shadow's arm, and squeezed it lightly to make him let go. Forgetting why he was holding him, Shadow released the former demon, and Mephiles collapsed onto the grass, holding a hand to the side of his head, his body shaking as he and Shadow brought their attention to the direction of the hit…

…

Rae was standing there, her fur a deep indigo, and her eyes an icy blue, her fur on end and her teeth bared heatedly at the crystalline hedgehog. Her black coloring on her fur tufts on the tips of her had extended to the entire area of the ears. Her slightly curled hand was up in the air somewhat above her head and shaking, she had obviously backhanded him…

Her eyes narrowed as her tails bristled and ceased twitching. She was panting through her teeth as well…

Mephiles had never seen her do this before, because the last time she did, he had been kidnapped by Dr. Eggman. He was, to a considerable degree… frightened.

Rae lowered her head, and changed back to her normal color in a sweeping moment from her feet to the tips of her ears as she turned away, shaking her head.

"Guess the little things just weren't good enough…" She threw at him coldly, her voice housing some hurt in it. She made her way to Jak, who was hiding behind a bush when his owner had changed for a brief moment. Rae picked him up, looked back at Mephiles and sighed, shaking her head again…

"… _Why..?_"

Mephiles was still stunned. His eyes quivered as he tried to hold back his tears. He looked up at Shadow, and saw the bleeding scratches and bite-mark he had given to him. Shadow didn't seem to notice the wounds, but Mephiles couldn't help but start to get upset about them.

He hadn't wanted Shadow to get hurt…

But Dark had…

And he was still within Mephiles…

Still waiting… once he broke free from his fear that had paralyzed him when Mephiles had tried to end them…

He was starting to feel the inner demon start to regain his senses…

…

Mephiles' body shook even worse, and he inched away as best as he could with a strangled moan as the demon tried to regain control again.

"Mephiles?" Shadow's glow dissipated as soon as he saw the shade's escalating distress.

Mephiles was shaking his head as Rae turned her attention back to the two hedgehogs, and saw what was going on. She didn't say anything, because she could think of something to say for this… she never had anything to say in a crisis.

She set Jak down, and the dog ducked under a bush again.

Mephiles' body quaked as his eyes darkened again and he clamped his hands to his head, shaking it violently.

"No… don't! Please, _don't!_ _No!_" He cried out as he curled up for a moment and into a ball. "_NO!_ _STOP IT! STOP!!_"

He unrolled and shot up quickly, his fur and quills on end. He glimpsed at Shadow, who saw a pair of familiar slit-like pupils for a brief moment, before they switched back to normal with a blink and a harsh gasp of horror.

Mephiles pushed himself up off the ground and ran again, this time just to get away from everyone. A few times, he almost tripped, but he was able to steady himself before he could.

Shadow was behind him, tailing after him, determined to make sure they didn't lose him. Rae was left behind; she wasn't fast enough to keep up with the hedgehogs.

Mephiles glanced behind himself, and tried to go faster once he saw that Shadow was gradually gaining on him…

Before he looked ahead again, his gait faltered and his foot struck a rock, and he tripped over it.

His eyes widened as he fell, and he rolled over slightly to land on his side, instantly regretting it as a shockwave of pain racked throughout his hedgehog frame.

He lay quite still as he waited for it to dull to a throb, hoping he hadn't injured a bone.

Actually… he was hoping more that he would be able to get away…

…

Again… he felt helpless…

It seemed he had no control over his life at all…

Ever…

He couldn't even end it without someone interfering…

Once Shadow finally caught up with him, Mephiles stared at him with a dead look in his eyes. Dark's hatred for Shadow flickered through him for a moment, so he looked away, and curled up slowly, wanting to just hide…

But he couldn't even do that…

He hated feeling like he couldn't do anything.

He was once a powerful being, capable of doing and getting anything he wanted just by manipulating and twisting events and mind…

No…

That wasn't him…

It had been Dark…

Dark was the powerful one…

Dark was the one who could do that…

Mephiles couldn't…

Mephiles was just a "lab-rat"… a hedgehog that was what he was because of science… He had been forced to live with this manifestation of his aggression and darkness within his entire life. Or rather… it had been forced to live with _him…_

But he still had his Chaos powers…

That was something that _was_ his…

Something he could use…

…

…

He sat up carefully, wincing at the ache in his arm from falling, and locked gazes with Shadow. The two stared again at each other for a good minute or so…

Then Mephiles sighed heavily, his eyes downcast as he grimaced and melted into the ground as a mass of shadows and mist, disappearing from sight as the stuff sunk into the grass.

Shadow jumped a little, staring at the empty place on the grass that had held the vanished hedgehog in front of him…

He had forgotten Mephiles could do that. It had been a long time since he had melted into his base form… a long time since he melted into something…

He was now hiding…

Where?

Your guess was as good as Shadow's…

* * *

Hm... do we have another chase on hand?

Well... I guess it's obvious Meph's not dead now... but it was another close call..

See you next chapter...


	7. Uh, Oh

Okay... not much to say...

Hope you like this :D

* * *

Mephiles was hiding. He was just outside of Westopolis, in the small field-like area. The one with grass, trees, bushes and a couple of small cliffs. The very same place he had declared his renunciation of his former life, and vowed to not let his past bring him down…

…

He scoffed. Yeah, he saw how well _that_ worked for him…

He sat under the shade of the tree that was on the small cliff that overlooked the city. He swiveled his ears down, and rested his head on his knees as he hugged them to his chest, wanting to just disappear, more than he was able to…

"… I just want this to end…" He muttered.

He hated this feeling… this one of hopelessness and despair… It was upsetting, and confusing, as well as, in a way… painful. If it was him from almost ten months ago… he might have called these "weak emotions", and that they impair one's ability to fight properly. He would have said hatred and revenge were all that were needed to exist, and that "weak emotions" just drag you down…

True… they did drag you down some; _that _part he was right about…

But to call these "weak"..?

…

…

…

He might have to change his mind, because if they are powerful enough to make him feel the way he was feeling… he may have underestimated them…

* * *

Shadow was still staring at the place Mephiles had disappeared from.

…

…

He could be anywhere right now… Even outside the city…

_Great…_

Shadow got up and headed back to the bridge. He was going to need his shoes and his anklets…

Once he returned, he found that Rouge had caught up with them. But as far as catching up with Mephiles… she was a tad late…

When she spotted Shadow's wet fur and quills, she immediately started asking questions, assuming the worst, but hoping for the best…

"He didn't-"

"I got to him before he drowned… _very_ close to not getting to him at all…"

"Where is he now?"

Well…" Shadow explained, slipping an anklet on over his foot and onto his ankle. "See… he wasn't too happy with the rescue… so he threatened to cut his wrist with his claws…"

"Wha-! _Please_ tell me he didn't…"

"Actually…" Shadow slipped his other anklet on, shaking his head. "He was backhanded before he could…"

"That was _me!_" Rae chimed in, waving a hand, wanting her credit for helping out.

"_You_ backhanded him?" Rouge turned her attention to the purple fox, who was nodding with her dog. "I wouldn't think you would…"

"Friend or no friend… it's a bad idea to try to hurt yourself around me. I won't have it… and you find out just how hard I can really hit…"

"She actually _scared_ him…" Shadow added as he slipped a foot into a shoe and reaching for his other. "So anyway… he's gone and run off again, this time melting into the ground. He could be anywhere now… but I don't think we have to worry so much now, because he's just scared now… but where to find him…"

"Is anyone's guess?" Rae asked with one ear perked. She received a weird look form Shadow, to which she giggled nervously.

"That's the second sentence of mine you've finished for me today… something you're not telling us, Rae?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Naw… it's Saturday… and I forgot my pill… so I'm gonna be able to predict a few things a bit better today…"

"Any of those predictions helpful to finding Meph?"

"I dunno… it comes and goes… let's hope so, though…" She said.

…

…

Yeah… let them hope so…

* * *

Mephiles shivered, a sudden chill running down his spine. This wasn't really anything to worry about… it had been happening all day… Even if it _was _a bright and sunny Saturday…

What was worrying him most was the sudden increase in his twitches. His fingers drummed against the ground in a nervous beat, no real rhythm to them at all…

His tail was also twitching anxiously; flicking up and down before moving side to side…

His foot shook in an impatient manner, not letting up once in its quivers…

But…

He was having no control over these movements…

"D-dark… wh-what are you d-doing?" Mephiles stammered as his shaking intensified.

'_I've deemed you to dangerous for yourself… I'm taking over to ensure nothing happens…'_

"Oh, l-like _you're_ n-not dangerous at _all!?_" Mephiles exclaimed at this notion.

'_I'm not the one who tried to kill you…'_

"_Sh-shut up! You know _why _I did that!_"

'_Gonna blame it all on me now? Say that I was the one who made you jump? The one who put those claws to your wrist? The one who scratched up Shadow?'_

"You _d-did_ sc-scratch him up!" Mephiles said loudly, though now part of him was seeing the truth about that now…

'_Oh, C'mon… _scratches?_ I'm more for a good gouge… remember? His hand three months ago? _That _was me… But this? That was _you… _And I gotta give you a hand for this one… I'm impressed… you not only bit up his hand… but you left some pretty bad scratches on his arm…'_

"_NO, I _DIDN'T!" Mephiles roared at the top of his voice, throwing his hands into his quills and tangling them into them. He ripped a few out in his rage at Dark. "IT WAS _YOU!_ _YOU_ MADE ME DO THIS! _YOU _MADE ME HURT HIM! _YOU _ARE THE ONE DRIVING ME INSANE!"

'_But you admit to being the one doing it this time?'_

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT _UP!_" Mephiles slammed his back into the tree and curled inward a little as the leaves were shook loose, and several fluttered to the ground unnoticed. "STOP MESSING WITH ME! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP _IT!_"

He bucked his head back, and slammed it into the tree. He did it again… thinking maybe if he hit his head hard enough… Dark might stop, knowing that if Mephiles was hurt… he couldn't do anything.

He turned around to where he was facing the tree and gripped at the trunk in his claws. With as much force as possible, he rammed his head into the trunk, feeling his vision blur as he did.

…

He could hear Dark protesting…

…

Faintly… but he could hear something…

…

His head was hurting badly… but that didn't stop him…

…

One more hit…

…

And he was out cold…

* * *

It was within the hour that he was found. He was curled up under the tree, sheltered from the heat of the sun. They spotted numerous injuries to his head that Rae and Shadow was certain weren't there before…

At first, they panicked when they couldn't hear his breathing at first, until they found it. Quick and shallow… but it was there…

And that meant that he was alive, which was very important to his friends.

His current state of mind, however, was the problem now.

By the looks of it, either could guess his injuries to his head were self inflicted, on big give off being the tree trunk embedded with a few crystal quills.

Shadow gave him a light prod to see if he was awake at all, or even partly conscious. Immediately at the touch, Mephiles groaned weakly, curling inward even more. Then he uncurled slowly and tried to sit up, his eyes half focused as he did so, as if he was not really aware where he was.

"Mephiles?"

At Shadow's voice, the crystal quilled head snapped up, and his eyes widened. He tilted his head at Shadow with an unfamiliar expression painted across his face. His eyes skittered to Rouge, Rae and Jak, before falling on Shadow again.

Immediately, Mephiles hissed and jumped back, his claws out, his ears flat and his teeth bared. His quills and fur were on end, and his wide eyes had darkened a couple shades, but remained void of the cat slit-pupils.

His eyes gave Shadow the same expression he had received on their first meeting; wide, staring, and echoing with insanity…

Mephiles suddenly jumped at Shadow and clamped his teeth into the hybrid hedgehog's uninjured arm hard enough for Shadow to worry about the bone breaking. Mephiles dug his claws into his skin, deeply growling heatedly as his eyes met Shadow's.

"WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE _ARM!?_" Was all Shadow could manage to think of saying at a time like this as the other friends gasped in fright as the shade snapped, bit, and kicked at Shadow like a wild dog…

There was no mistaking it…

…

…

…

Mephiles the Dark had gone feral…

* * *

Uh, oh... this won't be good...

See you next time...


	8. Mind of a Feral

Bit of a short chapter... but I ran out of stuff for this chappie. Next one will be good too, though...

Okay... so, here ya go...

Please enjoy :D

* * *

"Let go!" Shadow slapped his free hand upside the shade's face. Mephiles responded by biting down harder, the bone of the arm threatening to crack under the pressure. "Meph! _Mephiles!_ Snap _out _of it! _Mephiles!_"

With a deep growl, the deranged hedgehog shook his head animalisticaly, pulling back forcefully as he sank his claws deeper into Shadow's skin.

Wincing, Shadow lifted his foot and with the combined force of his free arm as well, shoved Mephiles off, who landed on his back a few feet away.

Before he could finish rolling over and push up from the ground, he felt a weight on his back and one arm was pulled and pressed up behind him, keeping him pinned to the ground. Turning his head to look behind him the best he could, he saw that Shadow had put all of his weight onto his back, and used as much force as possible to restrain him.

"What is _wrong _with you?!" Shadow yelled at the crystalline hedgehog, who was trying to shake him off. "Snap _out _of it!"

Mephiles gave a guttural growl, and fixed his eyes the best he could on the hybrid hedgehog. He bared his sharp teeth again as he narrowed his eyes, which were glinting with a degree of madness.

Suddenly, his expression changed. His hostility dissolved into utter terrified confusion as his eyes widened and he let a scared little whimper roll off his tongue.

Shadow loosened his hold in reaction, and Mephiles' expression changed back as he snickered and slipped his arm free. Rolling over, Shadow saw the smirk that had crawled onto the shade's face. In an instant, Mephiles had heaved Shadow off and was on his feet again, crouched down, shifting from side to side, his claws out and fingers twitching as if he was preparing to spring again.

…

Rae was being held back by her tails; as she had tried to help, without really think properly. Leaning forward as far as she could, she heard Rouge reprimand her.

"What are you _doing?_"

"Trying to help…"

"How?"

"…" Rae paused. She hadn't thought about that. "… I dunno… I didn't think about that…"

"We can't really do anything with Mephiles like this right now…"

"So we have to let Shadow deal with this on his own? Seems a bit… heartless… doncha think?"

"Got a better solution?"

"…"

"..?"

"… No… Not really…"

…

Mephiles was chanting mockingly at Shadow, his wide eyes fixed on him as he circled around him slowly, keeping his body close to the grass.

"… _Shadow… Shadow…_ Shadow…" He sang under his breath, as if this was a game to him. He chuckled crazily._ "… you can't help me… you can't help him… you can't save _us…_ Shadow… Shadow… Shadow… Shadow…_"

He dissolved into laughter again, throwing his head back as it echoed throughout the field when he stopped circling him for a moment.

Shadow took a step forward, and the shade's ears perked forward at the sound of the red streaked hedgehog's metal plating of his shoes scraping against the dirt. He returned his full attention to Shadow, grinning madly as he tilted his head and continued to circle around him.

"… _Can't save me… can't stop me… can't _help_ me…_" He giggled disturbingly before sighing. "_… Not good enough… _never_ good enough… was born bad… I'm not good enough… Shadow… Shadow… Shadow…_" He hissed the last words through his teeth, narrowing his eyes again. "_Shadow… Shadow… _SHADOW!"

At the last word, he lunged at the owner of the name, who sidestepped and palm-struck the shade in the back of the head. Mephiles hit the ground face first with a grunt, holding a hand to the point of impact.

Getting up with some difficulty, he braced himself with one hand and stared darkly at Shadow.

"… _Can't do anything… its useless… it doesn't matter… never good enough… Can't do this…_"

It would seem like he was really babbling, because he barely making much sense.

"If you just calm down…" Shadow tried to say reassuringly. "We can help you…"

"LIES!" The voice that had sounded from the shade was much like Dark's… in fact… it might have been, except for what was being said. That seemed more like Mephiles. Breathing hard, he shook his head angrily and backed away, his snarled quills and fur on end, his chest fluff even puffing out some as he took in each breath deeply. "… _it's _all_ lies… you can't help… can't help me… no one can… no one can ever… lies… lies… lies… lies… lies… lies… lies…_"

He dissolved into just chanting this word over and over. Again and again. Whispering it just loud enough to be heard. His eyes were wide again as he was slowly rocking his head form side to side, shifting his gaze downward.

"Mephiles?" Shadow said softly, hoping to catch his attention, but not to cause him to go over the edge like that again. He rubbed at one of his arm wounds, which was stinging a little. There was something about the razor sharpness of Mephiles' claws that did that… probably because they were crystal shards, and left a rather clean cut.

Said hedgehog snapped his head back up, but stared past Shadow for a moment or two. His eyes skittered around the area for a moment before resting upon Shadow, but remained somewhat unfocused. The words he was chanting faded off slowly, the last one ending with somewhat of a hiss of the breath.

He shrank away, his eyes wide and staring, his ears flattened against his head, his back arched a little.

"Mephiles?" Shadow tried again, and once his name was called, the shade's eyes started to clear up ever so slightly.

He blinked and perked his ears forward a small degree. He tilted his head questioningly, wearing a matching expression.

"… W… wha-?" He couldn't seem to voice his confusion, and scanned his eyes around the area for an answer.

He spotted Rae being held back by her tails by Rouge. Jak staring at the both of them.

He locked gazes with Shadow before tearing his eyes away and glancing at the hybrid hedgehog's arms, hand and side. His muzzle paled several shades at the site of all the bites, scratches and gouges left there that he was certain he had not left on him back at the bridge.

_What have I been _doing?!Mephiles screamed inwardly, his face showing all the shock that had gone through his mind.

As his tongue touched his teeth, the sickly bitter taste of what he could compare to being similar to what rusted metal would taste like (not that he had ever tried to eat rusted metal… he just figured it was like that from the scent was like…) greeted his taste buds viciously and he moaned queasily, clapping his hands over his mouth as his stomach twisted painfully, threatening to make him throw up.

His eyes glanced downward at his hands and what he saw caused him to break down completely and scream out frantic apologies, shaking his head as his sick feeling grew worse…

His claws and fingertips had traces of blood on them, and were currently smearing it into the fur on his muzzle…

Just like the nightmares Dark had taunted him about a couple of nights ago…

His eyes widened once more as the irises shrank and he broke out in a cold sweat, shaking as he wrapped his arms around his stomach. He moaned weakly and turned away from everyone as quickly as he could. Then he threw up on the grass before he collapsed onto his back and passed out…

* * *

Poor Mephiles... he just doesn't get a break, huh? Well... at least he seems to have broken out of that feral state now...

See you next time :D


	9. Pitch Black

Okay... this took a while... been a bit busy.

Great news... I just need 2 more credits, and finish my nightschool class, and I'm totally in the clear for graduation! :D Go me... took me a good long 15 years of school to get this far (I'm counting preschool and headstart...) and come next month, 4 days after my birthday... I'm walking across that stage in my cap and gown and picking up that diploma with my head held high and a smile on my face...

Provided "Senioritis" doesn't hit me in the last strech...

In other news: I just got an award for 4 straight years of perfect attendance!

They somehow inadvertantly forgot my name on the list, and felt so bad about it, that I got a special invite to the school awards night, where it was presented to me there. It was great hearing my name called just for this.

"Somehow, we inadvertantly forgot on special young lady when handing these out, and hopefully she's here tonight... Amanda Jones?"

I even got a coupon for some free food at the campus' own personal student run resturaunt (the food is _amazing! And_ you can even have it delivered to you during class!) and they let me stay on the stage for Mom to take pictures, saying "You've been here for everyday for 4 years... you can stay up here as long as you like..."

I also got to try something I've always wanted to try... Find Mom in the audience and say "Hi Mom!". She said "Hi!" back, and everyone there finally got to see her. :D Somehow... for 4 years... she has not really got to meet _my_ teachers... never really had to, as I tend to not get in much trouble...

Anyway... I'm keeping you from the fic...

Here you go, and hope you like it :D

* * *

Darkness was all around him.

He couldn't see where he was.

There was nothing but an endless field of pitch black, silent and empty, save for him…

His unease started to increase; he didn't like how this was looking…

He was alone, and somewhere he did not know nor see. But he could see his hand held up in front of him, the crystals, the claws… he could see that, so he wasn't blinded.

He eased himself to the ground, not knowing if the floor ended somewhere, or if a wall even began close by. He wanted to make sure he knew where the ground was and if he was able to be on it.

His ears swiveled from side to side; twitching around for any sounds that may help him, to let him know his location… _any_thing would help…

Well… almost anything…

"_Mephy… Mephy… Mephy…_"

He felt his blood turn to ice at the sound of that voice. His eyes widened as he dug his claws into the dark ground in response as he clenched his fists, curled inward, and bristled his quills. His spiky tail wrapped closed to his body, disappearing from sight.

"… _Did I scare you, Mephy Boy?_" His double's voice rasped around him, an eerie echo to it that made Mephiles' fur stand as well.

But, he refused to dignify that question with a response.

The voice laughed harshly, and the former demon held back a whimper. He scanned his eyes all around him, trying to glimpse the one talking. Teeth clenched tightly to stop them from chattering, he pushed himself up off the floor just a bit so he could look behind himself.

"Where are you?" He said loudly to mask over his dread, his ears' and tail's movement giving it away anyway. He said even louder: "_Show yourself! Now!_"

Dark snickered, laughing quite amused in a way Mephiles only understood because he had been in that position before.

"Where are we?!" Mephiles barked at the darkness, shifting his gaze quickly to the right. Nothing, still…

Dark stifled a laugh before giving his answer.

"_Now, now, Mephy…_" He tried to keep his voice serious, but traces of amusement were laced into it. "_I thought we were the smart one… it may not look like what you may have expected… but this here… this area… it's ours…_"

"Our what, exactly?" Mephiles was a bit confused. He shook his head. "You are making no sense to me at all… you may as well just be babbling…"

Scoff.

"_Perhaps you're not as smart as you give yourself credit for… would you like a hint?_"

A bit stupidly, Mephiles nodded.

"_Think about it…_"

"I am… now what's the hint?"

"_I just gave it to you…_"

"What?"

"'_Think about it'… that was your hint…_"

"You're just babbling, now…"

"_Am I now? Explain how… because _you_ are the one who refuses to take the hint… I am _not_ repeating myself…_"

"That's a laugh… because you just _love_ to say those nicknames for me over and over and over…"

"_Just shut up and figure it out…_"

"Figure out what? You've giving me nothing to work with…"

There was a screech of frustration, followed by some cursing, and a few choice words of profanity. Mephiles didn't know whether to laugh or be scared now. He lowered himself to the floor again.

"Fine!_ Here's another hint: Hallway! Hallway! Hallway!_"

"You… just repeated yourself…" Mephiles said before he could stop himself. He squeaked and bristled his quills once more as he half hid his face behind his hands, trying to cover one of his most vulnerable spots.

He felt a hand like his own grab him by the scruff and pick him up off the ground. Apparently, Dark was a bit more skilled in scruffing than that Shadow Android four months ago… because Mephiles curled up involuntarily in the same way a kitten does when that same happens. In a blink, he was face-to-face, nose-to-nose, and eye-to-eye with his demonic reflection, who was baring his teeth menacingly at him.

"_You._" He huffed through his teeth between breaths. "_Are. So. _Stupid!"

"I am _not…_" Mephiles whined much like a small child did when told the same thing.

"_Then where are we, Mr. Genius?_"

Mephiles shifted his eyes around a few times before shrugging. He was promptly dropped after he had given his answer, and landed on the ground with a **WHUMP**, his tail getting somewhat crunch underneath him.

"_Like I said… You are_ so _stupid…_" Dark said with a growl as Mephiles was now tending to his injured tail, trying to work out a kink that had now set into the end before it transitioned into the crystal spikes.

"Takes one to know one…" Mephiles couldn't help himself.

Dark turned to him swiftly with a glare that could stop traffic. Mephiles froze as his doppelganger leaned into his face.

"_Care to run that by me again?_"

"Not really… but if I must… I'm pretty much saying that whatever I am… you must be because you were once a part of me…"

"_I still am a part of you…_"

"No… you're not… I renounced my past and you a long time ago… you cannot hold that over my head…"

"_The 'official' renunciation was _last _month… so that's pretty recent…_"

"Oh, just shut up…"

"_My, my… bold now, are we?_"

"Shut up…"

"_But, like I've said before… you can't escape your past, Mephy Boy… It's always going to follow you…_"

In a flash of purple mist, Mephiles launched himself at Dark and slammed him to the ground. One clawed hand pinning him down by the throat, he held his other one up with a Dark Spike wrapped with his fingers, which had not only been a move of Dark's, but one Mephiles had been trying to perfect during his time in the Scepter of Darkness. He had been the one to come up with its concept, but could never quite get the hang of it. But it seemed his rage right now could be a working factor.

"_Going to kill me now?_" Dark said, quite unfazed by this sudden attack, and merely raised an eyebrow.

"I'll do whatever it takes to get rid of you…" Mephiles snarled at him, shifting his weight into his hand to try and choke him.

"_But what would that make you, then..?_" Dark whispered a bit once his air was being blocked off some. He wasn't worried, though…

"The one who got rid of you…"

"_Ah… so you would murder me? You would kill a piece of yourself?_"

Mephiles leaned forward to where Dark could fell his heated breath on his muzzle. Mephiles glowered at him before saying: "You are _not_ me…"

"_But as I exist because you do…_" Dark reasoned, still quite calm. "_That action would not only be murder… but suicide as well. Or rather… partial suicide, because you'd be killing half of yourself… how confusing that would be to sort out…_"

"How so?" Mephiles softened his expression a little, but keeping his hand on his double's neck.

"_See… you would spend the rest of your days _knowing _that you not only took a life, but part of your own as well… you would be considered half dead in layman's terms, because half of you is gone… that concept would forever be etched into your mind and could very well be what really drives you off the deep end…_"

"Meaning..?"

"_My death would slowly be _your _demise…_"

Mephiles couldn't counter that logic. True… Dark could be lying just to save his skin… but there could be some truth in that…

Reluctantly and defeatedly, the shade let go, and the Dark Spike dissipated in his claws.

Dark smirked as he stood up.

"_Now… where do you think we are?_"

Mephiles frowned in thought. With his eyes closed, his ears flattened as he contemplated about the two allusions given.

_Think about it…_

_Hallway…_

_Think about it…_

_Hallway…_

_Think…_

_Hall…_

_Think… brain… mind…_

_Hall… corridor… passage…_

_Hall… mind…_

_Hallway… mind…_

_Halls of…_

Mephiles gasped upon realization.

"We're in my _head?!_" He exclaimed in surprise, turning his wide eyes to his demonic reflection.

Dark snickered and applauded mockingly.

"_Bravo… it took you a quarter of an hour to figure it out…_"

"But… it's… well… _Shadow's…_"

"_Shadow's was a set of hallways to represent the many choices he has had to make in order to discover his true self. He was once a sufferer of amnesia, and had to find and unlock the secrets hidden in his head that lay behind locked 'doors' with the 'keys' given to him from those who claimed to help. Some did… and some didn't. Those doors represented his reclaimed memories, though held none at all…_"

"But a lot of them were locked… did he not get them all back?"

"_He did… but he chose to leave many… _unpleasant_ ones behind. Best to have kept them where he could no longer see them… wouldn't you agree?_"

"How do you know this? He hasn't told my any of this yet…"

"_Remember? When we were in his mind? When we picked up everything we could find about him?_"

"_You_ did…" Mephiles corrected, shaking his head. "I had no part in that matter…"

"_Nevertheless… I know it all…_"

"So why is mine so dark and empty?"

"_Simple. It represents _you. _Your past… what you've done… what you are missing…_"

"Impossible… My past was done by _you…_ what _you _have done. And I am missing nothing…"

"_Think so?_"

"Yeah…"

"_That's only a part of the illusion of your mind…_"

"_You're _an illusion of my mind!" Mephiles countered sharply, his crystal tips glowing for a moment in his anger.

"_That's what you think…_"

"I _know_ what I think!" Mephiles hissed, backing away slowly, his eyes fixed on Dark. "_I _think that you are just trying to break me again! You want to see how far you can bend me before I snap! You want to see just how much you can warp my mind before I can catch on… no!" He barked that last word, his fur puffing out as he did. "No! I am _not_ gonna fall for it! I _won't_ let you trick me again!"

"_And what else can I trick you about? I seem to have reached the end of my rope…_"

"Don't play me! I _know_ you have a magic satchel's worth of tricks just waiting to be thrown at me! You just don't give up!"

"_And what if I want to? Hmm?_"

If Mephiles had to tell of the time he had lost all sense in himself and let all of his rage take over… this would be it…

With a loud roar of fury, he launched himself at his doppelganger a second time, well ready to maul him. It didn't matter to him right now if Dark was his other half or not… he just wanted him to shut up.

However, Dark sidestepped and Mephiles found himself skidding on the dark floor a few feet away before coming to a stop. The shade looked up lividly and attempted to try that again… before his double's foot rested on his back and forced him down.

"_Are you really _that_ dumb?_" He said quite calmly as Mephiles tried to squirm out from under his foot, but as the two equal in size, weight and mass… Newton's Third Law of Motion was definitely _not _on his side.

Oh… joy…

Dark continued.

"_See… if that didn't work the first time… _why_ would you try again?_"

Mephiles could only growl at him as his response.

"_Getting snippy now, are we?_" Dark shook his head in mock disapproval. "_You're showing to be more like me as the time passes…_"

_Wrong_ thing to say…

Mephiles' eyes glowed as his powers kicked into full swing, and he was surrounded by purple mist. Immediately, Dark new his next move.

"_Ah, ah, ah…_" Dark waggled a finger at him before smirking again. "_If you plan to melt, right here, right now… I'll just do the same and get us so mixed up… we'll never be sorted right. It'll be like sorting grains of rice…_"

Mephiles' glow dimmed down some.

"You're bluffing…" He said simply, his eyes narrowing as he turned his head to glare at Dark.

"_Maybe I am… maybe I'm not… can you afford to take that chance?_"

"…"

"_Hmm?_"

"… No…"

"_Exactly…_"

"Why warn me about that? It seems more your style to let me suffer like that…"

"_Mephy… I _enjoy _making you suffer… that's why I'm dragging this out…_" He grinned wickedly before crouching down and raising a hand up. "_See ya later…_" He purred.

Mephiles' eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. Pressure point time…

"… Aw… crud…" Mephiles murmured as Dark brought the side of his hand to the very same place he had hit Mephiles two nights before. Darkness crept around the edges of his vision as he lost any feeling in his body. Luckily for him, he was already on the ground, and therefore, didn't need to fall. "… I… hate you… _so…_ much…"

And then it was dark…

* * *

Immediately, his eyes snapped open. At once, the blinding blankness of white greeted his vision viciously, causing him to shut them again.

"_Please_ tell me I'm not where I think I am…" He moaned.

"Okay… you're not where you think you are…"

"Shadow?" Mephiles blinked his eyes open and sat up. Sure enough, Shadow was leaning against the wall adjacent to the bed, arms folded, crimson eyes staring and looking greatly relieved. His bitten hand was wrapped, as were his arms, but he didn't seem to find this a problem.

Mephiles did however…

"Oh, God…" He clapped his hands over his mouth and gulped. "Oh my... I… I'm so sorry… I couldn't… I _didn't_… I… I just…" He was stammering, half stuck in a daze as the memory of earlier at the river pushed itself forward.

Shadow held up a hand to signal the shade to breathe, calm down and listen. Mephiles, with difficulty… tried, and in a few minutes was ready to hear Shadow, whimpering under his breath.

"I'll be fine… I've had worse…" He reassured him. "You were just freaking out, so it wasn't your fault…"

He was interrupted abruptly when Mephiles screamed and broke down into tears. Utterly confused, he cautiously made his way from the wall and to the bedside, watching his shadow bawl as Mephiles' yanked at his quills. His hand twitched for a moment before he hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder. Mephiles gasped harshly and shrank away, a look of terrified horror painted on his face.

"Uh, are you okay?" Shadow asked anxiously.

"You weren't supposed to get hurt! You weren't supposed to _save_ me!" Mephiles cried out, the onset of tears coming on again as he shook his head. "Why do you keep coming when I'm in trouble?! _Why?!_ Why, when all you get in return is getting hurt?! Why am I so important to you?!"

The shade dissolved into weeping now, his body shaking with each sob.

"… I was only trying… to get away… so no one… would get hurt…" He managed between sobs, shaking his head.

The awkward silence (though not really a silence, because of Mephiles' tears…) was a little unnerving to Shadow. He wanted to tell Mephiles that it was okay, that it was going to be alright, that nothing bad was going to happen as long as he could help it…

…

…

But… how do you tell that to someone who was fighting against a demonic half that loved to mess with their head?

* * *

Alrighty then... hope you liked the "slight" TD1 reference in the beginning...

Boy... Meph's in deep now, isn't he? I think he needs a hug... I feel as bad as I do when I watch those ASPCA commercals with all those poor animals with the "Eyes of an angel" song playing, and I suddenly want to bring Jak in from outside and give him "puppy spa" treatment. He stays outside during the day with the other dogs, especally during school hours and when we're cleaning. He's usually in during the day if the weather outside is bad or cold or too hot or if ash is falling from the sky (This happened once...). Gotta keep my old puppy happy.

He also gets to spend the nights indoors, and stays in my room with me. He has his own blanket, which is a nice crochet one my sister-in-law made ages ago and recently gave to me, which Jak claimed as his favorite. He also has his own little bed, but he prefers to share mine with me. I don't blame him... nights can be cold, and he's just a little guy... about the size of my floppy bunny toy...

Well, as Jak snoozes in his blanket right now... I must submit this story here and elsewhere... See you next time :D


	10. Bonding a Little

Okay... so this chapter has some more of the Shadow-Maphiles-Bonding thing to it... However... I must say that I did not originally plan to end the chapter the way I did. But... I am pleased with it...

Hope you like this one ;P

* * *

Shadow the Hedgehog was at a loss as he stared at the quivering, crying mess of a hedgehog before him that was Mephiles the Dark. Mephiles seemed unable to stop his tears and was utterly upset the moment he had laid eyes on Shadow's injuries, which had been inflicted on the shade's part.

As the crystalline hedgehog choked on his breath, Shadow tried to touch his hand to his shoulder again, this time Mephiles not bothering to jump away, but instead shuddering.

"Look… like I've said, I've had worse…" Shadow tried to say reassuringly, trying to calm Mephiles down. "It'll heal over like those other times… It's not a big problem…"

Obviously, Shadow realized the moment he said that, Mephiles started to tremble now, even worse than before.

"It _is! _It _is_ a big problem!" He yelped out, closing his eyes, gripping a hand behind an ear and shaking his head frantically. "You weren't supposed to get_ hurt!_ Not at _all!_ What is _wrong _with me?!"

"There's nothing wrong with _you…_ you just have an inner demon who wants me gone, and keeps messing with your head…"

"But there _is_ something wrong with me!" The shade snapped his head up and locked gazes with Shadow, who could see a considerable amount of pain behind Mephiles' eyes. "There is! There is! Something is _very_ wrong with me!"

"What makes you say that?" Shadow was very much worried about him now. Mephiles was always one to deny having any flaws, so to claim something like this repeatedly was not really a good sign.

Mephiles held back another flood of tears long enough to whisper out: "Dark wasn't the one who hurt you at the bridge… He told me that was on my part… I did it… I… it was… I'm so… I…"

He couldn't finish his sentence. He choked on the last words, and dissolved into silent tears this time, shifting his eyes to the grey tiled floor quickly as his ears flattening and disappearing under his quills.

As Mephiles shuddered again, Shadow was quiet. His silence was upsetting to Mephiles even more than if he had just decided to hit him upside the head and yell at him about his problem.

"… You should have just let me drown…" Mephiles whispered hollowly, not looking up. "… You should have just left me alone and all your problems would have been solved… you hate me anyway…"

…

…

"I don't _hate_ you…" Shadow said finally.

This caused Mephiles' ears to perk upward quickly as he looked up once this was said. At those words, his despair had shifted into shocked disbelief, as if he wasn't sure he had heard that right.

"I don't hate you…" Shadow repeated with a small laugh once he saw the shade's confusion. "If I did… I wouldn't have bothered to look for you once you ran off, nor would I have tried to swim to save you… heck… I wouldn't have even tried to help you at all if I hated you…"

"Wha..?"

"Just between you and me…" Shadow said with a slight smile as he decided to let Mephiles in on a little secret. "When you jumped… I'll admit that was the first time you've made me cry…"

"… You… cried… about_ me?_" Mephiles said in complete astonishment. "But… why? I… all I've ever really done to you was hurt you… I don't deserve that…"

"Ah, but see…" Shadow pulled a chair in front of him, facing the back of it towards Mephiles, and rested his arms on the backrest of it as he sat down. "If you had killed yourself… _I_ would have the one to live with the fact that that could have been avoided if I had just listened to you. I've already lost one friend trying to protect me before… If it happened again… I don't know what might happen to me…"

"… You lost a friend before..?" Mephiles' despair seemed to have steadily dissolved as he became increasingly interested in what he was being told. "… wait… did you just imply _I'm_ your friend now..?"

"Sure… I mean, you've been living with us for a good ten months now… even _I_ can't hate anyone for that long…"

"What happened to your friend?"

Shadow's expression died just a bit, but only minimally. If Rouge had been around, she would had recognized that as him recollecting on that day, but well determined not to get upset about it. Shadow was working on letting it go, and in fact… he was doing pretty well, only remembering Maria and Professor Gerald as how he would like them to be remembered… before they had been killed…

"How do I start this one?" Shadow tapped a finger to his forehead in thought, trying to collect his thoughts and stringing them into a coherent form. He had it figured out in no time flat. "Okay… remember when I told you I had been in a coma for fifty years?"

"Uh huh…"

"I said that GUN had done that to me?"

"Yes…"

"And told you about what had happened fifty years after that?"

"You said that you had met Rouge and everyone after Eggman had set you free the first time. Then you had ended up in another pod, and was freed by Rouge, but couldn't quite remember several things…"

"True… but I left quite a few details out on purpose…"

"Like what, and why?"

"I didn't feel like sharing many of those things. There are a few things about me that even Rouge has had to find out on her own, because I wouldn't tell."

"But like what? And what does this have to do with your friend?"

"You already know I'm not a full bred hedgie right?"

"You're half Black Arms alien… whatever they are…" Mephiles had never really bothered to look into the fullness of the truth of Shadow's other side of the "family", he just simply knew the classification.

"Ah, see now… _that's_ part of how this story starts…" Shadow grinned at him. "The other part is that my friend had an incurable illness called 'Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome'. Part of the reason for my creation was that I was made as part of research for looking into immortality, which in turn could help Maria and hopefully cure her."

"But… how does that explain you being half Black Arms… in fact what are they, exactly?"

Shadow explained in pretty good details about the demonic alien race, and how they had tried to use the planet as a fuel source by latching their comet to the Earth, and paralyzing its inhabitants with a gas that locked all motor movements, gradually making its victims weaker and weaker as the time under its control went on.

"There seemed to be no way that we could get out of this one. Every one of us was forced down and frozen in place. I, much to my dislike, was stuck in a way that looked like I was bowing to Doom, because I had collapsed once I heard about why else I had been created…" Shadow rested his fanged teeth on top of each other and clenched them in contempt, frowning slightly. "And then he sent those little Death Leeches of his after us to devour us from the feet up… aaaaand… we couldn't move… at all…"

"Obviously, you did… because we wouldn't be having this conversation if you had been eaten…" Mephiles wiped at his running nose as he started to settle down, any trace of his recent hysteria fading gradually as his interest increased.

"Luck have it that my half Black Arms genetics gave me the ability to resist the gas… but I didn't know I was able to until I got really fired up. Stood up, and stomped the little thing into a slimy puddle on the floor…"

Mephiles actually laughed at the thought of that.

"I see you're feeling a little better…" Shadow flashed a grin at him.

"A bit… but, please… continue…"

"Okay. I took off after Doom, who had left once I broke free, and it took me a good ten minutes to find him again. He's standing there with the seven Emeralds, and tried his mind trick thing on me again… it was then I found out that he could actually get into my head, force me down and that was also when I found out the darker side to the reason of my creation… which was that he had given his DNA so he could use me as part of his plan to kill the planet…"

"He… got in your head? Wait… you were supposed to be used to destroy the planet?!" Mephiles exclaimed the last sentence in total disbelief as he shook his head. "No way… you're a good guy… right?"

"Wasn't always…" Shadow said with a considerable amount of regret in his voice.

Mephiles' ears shot up as far as they could go as soon as he heard this, his eyes widening. Then, with a frown, he leaned forward as much as he could without falling off the bed to stare at Shadow as hard as he could, said hedgehog feeling like he was being scanned.

"Explain further…" Mephiles requested simply.

Pause…

"Uh… 'Kay… I was kinda on the aliens' side for a while…"

"_**WHY?!**_" Mephiles yelled loud enough to cause Shadow to flinch and swivel his ears down.

"… They told me they could help me with my amnesia… I was _desperate!_"

"And you believed them… Oh c'mon… If _I_, the most omnipotent of former demons, couldn't get you to fall for the slim chance of what could happen to you in the future… what made you believe them?"

"They were using my hatred of Humans against me…"

"But, your best friend was a Human… your creator was a Human…"

"I didn't begin hating Humans until after they were killed…"

There was this awkward silence. Mephiles expression softened as he sat back down and stared at Shadow, the both of them with their ears flattened. Mephiles' ears went down further as he looked away.

"… Sorry… I had no idea…"

"That's okay… you couldn't have known about it…"

…

"What happened to them?"

"GUN shot them…"

Mephiles turned his head to Shadow swiftly.

"Not the same GUN that you _work_ for?"

"The same branch… but not the same people… they've either died, been killed or retired…"

"Why did they kill them?"

"It's a bit of a long story… but they thought that I was being created as a weapon or something. They stormed the ARK, and tried to not only shut it down, but destroy me and any research that was used in my creation. I think they thought that because of how unruly the Biolizard was becoming. She was my prototype… and _very_ unstable. GUN stormed the ARK after she went nuts and decided to purge the research, and that included taking me out as well..."

"But you survived… what happened to Maria and your creator?"

"Maria took the shot for me while she was trying to save me. That's just not right… I was supposed to be the one to protect her… to _help_ her… and she lost her life because she was standing in the way. And I couldn't do anything about it… I couldn't do _any_thing…"

It seemed now that the roles between the two hedgehogs had switched. _Mephiles_ was now the one to watch _Shadow_ as he poured out his story to the shade. Mephiles could now understand where Shadow was coming from with why he continued to protect him from harm… it was because of what had happened to someone close to him, and… if Mephiles had let himself die… it would have made Shadow relive that day… A friend losing their life because they were more worried about his safety…

…

He would have hurt Shadow by doing that anyway…

…

Something he had wanted to avoid…

…

…

As Shadow half hid his face in his hand, staring at his hover skates on his feet, Mephiles slid off the bed carefully, a shiver running through him as his feet touch the cold tile of the hospital room.

Without a word, he took a few steps forward, and did something unexpected…

…

…

He wrapped his arms around Shadow, whose eyes widened with surprise. Mephiles rested his head on his shoulder and whispered: "… I'm so sorry…" before shuddering a few times, obviously trying to hold back his own tears.

Shadow stared ahead in confusion before hesitantly bringing his own arms up to return the embrace. His body relaxed some as he murmured back: "… It's not your fault…"

And then... they both wept…

* * *

I'll say it again... I did not plan to end the chapter this way. But, I like how the two have a bit of a better understanding of each other. Plus... this shows just how far Mephiles has really matured as a person (hedgehog?), and shows just how far he can feel sympathy for others. I'm so proud of him! :D

I tried to not have Shadow become a mess at the mention of Maria's name, as it seems to be customary with many fics (_looks around shiftily_)... after all, in Next Gen, Shadow had not mentioned Maria, Gerald, or the ARK at all, obviously meaning that he's starting to heal over that. So it made sense to me to acknowledege that acheivement somewhat in this chapter. Shadow's growing as a character in the games as well!

As for any questions about the location of Rouge, Rae, Jak and anyone else right now... I guess I can just say we're at the gift shop or something... you know you can get lost in a hospital... so we could be anywhere... :D

See you next chapter! :D


	11. Black and White

Okay... so... I'm continuing again...

Shadouge shippers, you'll be very happy with this chapter ;P

* * *

It was well over an hour before it had stopped. Mephiles, being as exhausted as he was from the days events, had fallen asleep after he had cried his remain strength away.

Shadow shifted the crystalline hedgehog enough to where he could slip his hands under his legs and pick him up to carry him back to the bed. Once he was set down, he rolled onto his side and curled up without waking up at all. He was definitely out like a light…

Shadow sat back down in the chair, and ran a hand through his quills.

…

…

Maybe he had more in common with the shade than he thought. After all, the two had similar origins, and the both of them were victims of misunderstandings… they were as they were because of that.

Shadow had been somewhat callous towards even his own friends to a point because of what he had lost. Perhaps he was like that because he was afraid to get so close to those he really cared about… afraid he might have a repeat…

But, after fifty years in a coma, and now almost two years after his reawakening… it was quite apparent that it wouldn't happen again, and he was now becoming gentler towards his friends… especially Rouge…

Mephiles was as he was mainly on Shadow's part… because of his sudden sealing into the Scepter… Mephiles spent the first ten years of his life in complete and total darkness with nothing to deviate his mind from what would haunt him for the rest of his life: The deaths of all the Soleanna scientists that had been killed because he had been brought into existence from an explosion…

He had never had any friends, nor had he ever heard of the concept before the first week he had met Team Dark, and therefore had nothing to think about how his actions would affect something as he set his sights on total annihilation of time itself.

He didn't know any better…

Just as Shadow thought he was doing the planet good by killing all the "heartless" Humans that had wiped out his loved ones and destroyed the lives of those who had had a hand in his creation. In his mind… he thought that the planet didn't need _any_ Humans for its protection, because Humans were once viewed to him as a self-destructive race of beings…

But, the both of them had been saved through friends… most notably… Rouge…

"… Rouge…" Shadow said to himself softly before letting a small smile crawl onto his face.

He let a small laugh escape him…

It was Rouge who had helped the both of them…

And he had been the only one who hadn't bothered to thank her…

But…

He'll change that…

* * *

"Okay, fine! He's on a leash now! Happy?" Rae said loudly as she clipped the lead onto Jak's faded green color, the both of them frowning at the personnel. "I don't see why he has to be… he's well behaved without it… it's just gonna make him rebellious…"

"I'm sorry, Rae…" Thizon was part of the small group of people who had tried to explain to the thoroughly confuse fox about the rules. "But he needs to be leashed… it's just the rules…"

"Okay… but I still say he's better without it… it's not like he's _diseased _or anything. He checked out great at the vet last month, in fact… he did well without me having to follow the vet to the back when they were making sure he was up to date on his shots…"

"Thank you, Rae…" Thizon nodded as the twin tailed fox picked up her dog.

"Whatever helps…" Rae said slowly, her tails twitching before she forced a smile. "I'm not in trouble… am I?"

"Why?"

"For breaking a rule…"

She received a collective laugh, to which she frowned before taking that as a good sign.

"I don't think they're going to hold this against you, Rae…" Rouge reassured her.

"Oh… okay… so… now what?"

"We could head back to the room… I'm sure he's woken up now…"

"Oh, right…" Rae grinned, setting Jak back down, but keeping the loop of the lead around he wrist. "Hold on, for a moment… I just got an idea…"

Rouge blinked and followed her into the gift shop and the fox made a beeline for several shelves of many bean filled plush toys of many sizes, shapes, styles and colors. There were red heart shaped tags clipped to either their left ears, hands or wings.

Rae dug through several piles of the plushies, making a few comments here and there as she tried to find a particular one.

"Dotty, Ears, Neon, Purr, Silver, Zip… Ah _ha!_" She held up a black and white plush dog with fuzzy, floppy ears. "Frolic's not exactly like Jak… but she'll do…"

The fox oblivious to the stare she received from the bat as she made her way to the counter happily, searching in her tails for some Rings.

"Beanie Babies are a great gift." Rae explained without looking behind her, tails waving happily once she found several Rings to pay for it. "I have well over a couple hundred of these little guys. I know a place to buy them by the bulk, but it's always a luck of the draw as far as what you get. Anyway… these make great gifts… all of mine were bought by someone who cares, so I have plenty of found memories on them."

She handed the Rings to the clerk and nodded with a smile before making her way to the door, following Rouge back to the room.

"I think he'll like this…" She said to the bat simply after she picked up Jak, who didn't want to walk the whole way.

* * *

"Oh… he's not up yet…" Rae's ears drooped down some once they came back, her voice laden with disappointment, the plush hanging loosely in her hand. "Okay… I… I can wait… again…"

"Actually, he was up about an hour ago…" Shadow explained to the purple fox, whose tails had stopped twitching as she dropped to the floor and sat down with a **THUMP **and a heavy sigh. Rae's ears perked up at his sentence as she set the plush on her lap, which received a glare from Jak.

"Was he okay? 'Cause, y'know… we're kinda worried about him…"

Shadow decided not to tell them about the part about Mephiles' hysteria once he set eyes on Shadow's wounds. Instead he told them about the talk that they had had.

"You finally told him?" Rouge smiled at this. "You finally told him the whole truth? What did he think about it?"

"He was a bit astonished… I think he was really shocked, especially the part about Doom… he almost didn't believe me about that…"

"Doom?" Rae perked up her ears even more. "Y'mean Black Doom, the guy with those aliens that tried to take over Westopolis last year?"

"They tried to use the world as a fuel source…" Shadow corrected her, before blinking. "How did you know about that?"

"I've lived in the city for a good five years and counting… something like paralyzing gas is hard for even _me, _the mistress of selective memories, to forget… So, you were the hedgehog that stopped him?"

"Didn't you see the new special on it?"

"Naw… don't watch the news… changes too much…"

"…"

"So… is he any better?" Rouge tried to steer them back on track.

"A little… I got him to laugh a little before we trailed into the Maria part of the story…"

Pause…

"How… how did he react to that..?" Rouge said a bit hesitantly, hoping it didn't turn out as bad between them as she thought what might have happened.

"He… says he's sorry…" Shadow said slowly, turning his attention to the hedgehog, who was still curled up on the bed, his breathing shallow and steady, obviously still out of it.

Rae had crawled her way over to him and set the plush toy right beside him. Once it touched his arm, he made an involuntary grab for it and within a few seconds, Frolic was wrapped in his arms, hugged closely as he buried his face into the fluffy toy, whispering out a contented sigh.

"I think he likes it…" Rae said with a small grin.

"He's kinda asleep right now because he bawled himself to sleep…" Shadow continued, turning his eyes downward, letting his ears droop down some.

"Why? Is he okay?"

"Oh, he's fine, now… he was crying after I told him about what happened to Mar-"

Shadow stopped and just stared blankly for a moment. He blinked and quickly shifted the subject.

"Hey, Rouge?" He said, his voice quickly regaining his composure.

"Yeah?"

"Mephiles has thanked you for helping him… Right?"

"Yes…" Rouge said slowly, not quite seeing where this was going. "He has…"

"And I have yet to… right?"

"You don't have to-"

She was cut off suddenly when Shadow caught her by the hand, pulled her forward and pressed his lips to hers. All the sounds in the area seemed to have stopped once that happened. Everything… just… stopped…

…

…

Rouge's muzzle darkened a shade of pink around her cheeks before she leaned forward to return the gesture, bringing an arm around his neck as she pulled him closer.

Rae stood in a state of shock, her dog doing likewise, both with their mouths half open, before Rae regained herself and giggled. Jak snorted and looked away with a growl that meant: "I don't get it…"

Shadow pulled away just a little, grinning slyly at the white bat in his arms.

"Thank you, Rouge…" He said softly.

Rouge giggled and nodded a "No problem…"

* * *

It's been requested for a long time now for a Shadouge kiss scene... so I've finally gotten to where I can add it in :D

Hope you like this chapter... and yes... I _do _have well over 200 Beanies... I'm serious!

See ya next time :D


	12. Faint

Okay... so... Uh... I guess, back to the angst...

I think Dark's plan is becoming more clear now...

Hope you like this one :D

* * *

"_So… Mephy Boy… enjoy your time away?_"

Mephiles spun around at a one eighty degree angle to face the voice.

"Why won't you leave me alone?" He growled, taking a step back once he laid eyes on his double. "It's obvious now that I'm the dominant one, so you should either just go back where you belong, or even better… disappear…"

He was back in his mind, the seemingly endless void of darkness surrounding him. He held his hands out slightly, claws extended and ready to use. Poison green eyes locked gazes with his own, and neither dared to back down.

"_Mephy… I _can't_ disappear… as long as you exist…_" Dark dissolved into mist and wrapped around Mephiles, pinning his arms to the side and rooting him in place. The mist snaked its way to his ear. "_… however long… I do as well…_" Dark's voice whispered in his ear, the voice taking on the hiss of a snake.

Mephiles' eyes lit up with a purple glow as his Chaos Aura erupted around him, forcing the mist to let go.

"That is a _lie…_" The crystalline hedgehog shook his head as the mist took the form of his dark doppelganger, who frowned. "You are a separate entity… You are no more me than I am Shadow…"

"_But you took on the form of Shadow's shadow… did you not?_"

"So?"

"_So you only look as you do because you stole an identity…_"

"Let me correct you for you… _you _were the one who did that… if I recall… I had no part in that choice…"

"_And yet… you still continue to look somewhat like him…_"

"Barely!" Mephiles barked, his quills bristling and his fur beginning to stand. "Thanks to the purple Emerald, I hardly look like him, with the exception of chest fluff and quill style… I mean, I'm a dark blue for love of all things pure! I have crystals! My eyes are a style all my own!"

"_I recall knowing about a bluish hedgehog with green eyes… Fast little bugger…_"

"Oh, would you just shut up?!"

"_And, would it kill you to come up with better comebacks? It's like hearing a broken record… again and again and ag-_"

He didn't get to finish. Mephiles had formed a swirling orb of Chaos energy in his hands and hurled it at Dark. Him having not seen it, he was hit right in the face, the fur on his muzzle getting somewhat singed.

"_YOU'LL _PAY _FOR THAT, WEAKLING!_" He hissed as he formed a Dark Spike in both of his hands, but Mephiles just snickered.

"I've figured this out…" He said to a bemused Dark, who lowered his hands in bewilderment. "See… you can't really kill me, because without me… you die… but I can get rid of you without any ill effects, because I am _not_ you…"

Dark stared for a moment, Mephiles grinning at him with an "I win!" type of smile. He frowned, raising his clawed hand to his ear and scratching behind it in thought. Suddenly, a wicked little smirk broke out onto his face and Mephiles shivered.

"_I see… I can't _kill _you… but… I can make you as miserable as possible…_"

"M-meaning?" Mephiles tried not to stammer… but failed at it horribly.

"_I can control your senses as well. I can warp everything you see and hear and feel. I can twist the world around you so much… you won't be able to tell what's real or not. So we'll see who the real weakling is while I see how long you can last before you break from the pressure… You won't get very many breaks in between…_"

He drummed his fingers together, giggling to himself softly, which made Mephiles quiver.

"_You up for the challenge, Mephy Boy?_"

"I'm not agreeing to anything…"

"_Too bad… We're doing it._" Dark said simply before taking a step forward and raising his hand. "_So… see you later…_"

"Isn't there another way to do this?" Mephiles eyes the hand that he knew was going to knock him out again. "I mean… Shadow had doors…"

"_Nope… no doors here… bye…_"

Mephiles cursed as he was hit and his legs gave out, him already having lost consciousness before he hit the floor…

He never heard the maniacal laughter that rang out in the darkness…

* * *

He awoke with a start in the dark of the night, his eyes wide and staring as he looked around frantically and he tried to sit up, his body shaking terribly. He was panting heavily, his chest heaving up and down as he held back a strangled cry of fright by burying his face in the pillow. He pulled it away and gulped down the frigid air of the room and started to realize something that was a bit unnerving…

He was alone…

Whimpering under his breath, his eyes trailed along the walls and back to his immediate area before he spotted something: A "Call for Help" device… whatever they are really called…

Without really thinking, he snatched it up and pressed the button rapidly, the exact number quite unknown. After what felt like minutes, he tossed it aside and grabbed the plush bean filled toy dog that he had been holding and hugged it even closer. He'd question where it came from later…

"Hello?"

Mephiles looked up. A young white cat, most likely an intern, was leaning in the doorway, an ear perked.

"Do you need anything? The call alert for this room went off a few times…"

There was a pause before Mephiles said quite softly: "… D-do you know where my friends are?"

"That small group? The bat, the hedgehog, and the fox with the dog?"

Mephiles nodded slowly.

"The fox and the dog had to go home…" The cat explained, brushing some hair tufts out of her face. "But I think the bat and the hedgehog are still here…"

"C-can I see them? It's _really_ important…"

"I'm not sure right now… It's late, so they might have fallen asleep in the waiting room or something…"

"Please, I _really_ need to talk to them…" He pressured, his ears drooping downward as he started to look more visibly upset. "It's really important… I _need_ to tell them…"

"… I can try to find them…" She said, raising her eyebrows in concern. "… If you're willing to wait a little while."

"… I need to tell them something _very_ important…" Mephiles nodded slowly, his eyes still on the cat. "… I'd like to see them as soon as possible…"

"Okay… I'll try…" The cat nodded and turned to leave. "… and don't try to get up!" She hollered back at the bemused Mephiles, who had attempted to get off the bed and stand up. He sat back down carefully, staring blankly as he waited.

After what could have been a quarter of an hour, Shadow and Rouge appeared at the doorway, the tail of the white cat disappearing from sight.

"Are you okay? She said you wanted to tell us something, said it was really important…" Shadow said once he and Rouge laid eyes on the distressed hedgehog, who climbed off the bed.

Mephiles shivered, his eyes wide and staring before he mumbled: "He's figured it out…"

"What?"

"Dark's figured it out…" He repeated, shaking his head and looking away towards the window. "He knows he can't really hurt me… but he said he's gonna make me miserable… dunno how though…"

"What do you mean?"

This was from Rouge.

"… He can basically control my senses… make me hear what he wants me to, see what he wants… _feelings_ even… He's gonna trick my brain, and mess with my head…"

There was a pause, and then he shuddered.

"Oh, please… _help_ me…" He pleaded, looking up with tear filled eyes. "D-don't let him win… I… I'm… I'm _scared!_"

He looked about ready to cry, before he stopped moving suddenly and his expression went blank.

"Meph?" Shadow took a step closer, seeing this as a danger sign.

"Mephiles?" Rouge followed suit.

Said hedgehog started to sway for a minute, his eyes gradually getting wider as the seconds passed. Mephiles was beginning to feel very dizzy and eased a hand up to his head and pressed it to his forehead with a weak groan as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"Oh,_ no…_" He moaned as he began to feel extremely lightheaded. "… I think he's started… oh… oh… oh… _oh…_"

With a grit of the teeth, he collapsed and fell sideways, but was caught by Shadow before his head struck the corner of the bedside table. He lifted his eyes for a moment before they rolled back and he fell limp as he passed out for possibly the ninth time that week, his hand falling to the side loosely. He whispered an ill moan unconsciously, and the two friends could see the shade of red rising in his cheeks as he shivered.

Shadow carefully placed him back on the bed and removed his glove to press his hand to Mephiles' forehead. He withdrew it quickly with his eyes narrowing and a frown placing itself on his face.

"He's running a fever again…" He growled, shaking his head. "Can't tell how high, but it doesn't look good…"

Mephiles now sounded like he was having problems breathing right, because he was inhaling and exhaling in deep rattling gasps of air.

"Watch him while I find the nurse again." Shadow said to Rouge as he swiftly exited the room.

The white bat nodded and turned her full attention to the hedgehog on the bed, who was now shaking on top of all his other ailments.

Rouge reached out and touched her hand to his muzzle. At her touch, the shaking died down some and he half opened his eyes with a groan, staring at her with a glazed expression. His hand twitched as he put a lot of effort into moving it, and he was able to place his on top of hers after a couple of minutes.

"_Don't let him win…_" He mouthed to her as he teetered on the edge of consciousness, his eyelids drooping again.

"_Don't you dare give up, then…_" She mouthed back.

He nodded weakly as his hand lost its strength and slipped off of hers and landed on his patch of chest fluff. He blinked blearily a few times and tilted his head as he blacked out once more, leaving the white bat alone, who was now beginning to tear up.

Mephiles had been working hard to change for the past ten months… and this might be the biggest obstacle he had left to cross…

He was giving it his all…

And that was all that they could ask…

But…

…

…

Would it be enough?

* * *

Oooh... the angst!

Okay... just so you know... Rouge was just being like a protective sister there... so I wasn't implying any pairup-yness. Shadow's the only one for her! (Or, if you support KnuxRouge... than I guess Knuckies a good choice too... it's either or for me, but I like Shadow with Rouge better...).

I actually have the basic ending for this story planned... I just need to steer the story that way... and this seems to be the best route.

As far as the ending... only three people know about it: Me, my friend "Kyrenoria" and my cousin. And that's all... I don't want to kill it for you guys... but if you want a teaser... Meph's gonna get hurt _real _badly... as in worse than the "Visions" ending... _much_ worse... but I'm sure he'll make a good recovery... he's a tough little guy... I hate having to get him hurt like that... but... well... it seems to add to his character...

Oop! Talking too much... I better stop before I ruin it...

On another note: This is the longest out of all the stories! And it's still going! :D


	13. Back Home

God... I am so late on this one. Several reasons actually... 1) Catching up on my last two classes for school graduation requirements. 2) Taking a short break from this. 3) Trying to hang a little with my cousin, who complains I take too much time on this series. 4) Readjusting my eyes to endure sunlight again. And 5) Believe it or not... but I actually had writer's block for 2 days!

This chapter was not as long as I wanted, but once I get past a few things I need to do for this fic, I should be dishing out the long ones again... the final climax scene I have prewritten is over 8 pages long on paper!

Just so you know... I'm still here... so you won't have to worry about me disapearing for over months or something like most fic writers. Another note: who really updates and adds anymore? I have over 350 favorites... and many haven't been updated for as long as two years! I hope they're okay...

Hope you like this chapter then...

* * *

It wouldn't be until morning when Mephiles would regain consciousness again.

His eyes fluttered open, and he contemplated whether or not he should just lie still, lest Dark would try something new.

It was an iffy guess… but he figured for the sake of the rising concern of his friends to at least show some signs of life and move a little…

He moved his hand back a little and leaned into his arm to sit up, his other hand pressed to his forehead.

"Augh… I feel _terrible…_" He groaned, shaking his head a little, but regretting it instantly when his headache grew a bit worse. "Ah… that hurt…"

"Oh, you're awake now!"

Mephiles cringed. Loud voices weren't helping either…

"Please don't do that…" He murmured. "My head hurts enough as it is without help…"

"Sorry…"

He lifted his hand to look at who was talking. Shadow.

"Given the circumstances… I need you to prove you're really there…" Mephiles narrowed his eyes. "Say something that only Shadow would say…"

Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, okay… er… actually… I don't say much of anything anyone doesn't say…"

"Good enough for me…" Mephiles forced a small smile. "How long was I out?"

"All night…"

"That's not _too_ bad…" The shade nodded slowly, paying mind not to further his headache. "At least it wasn't like the other times…"

Shadow nodded in agreement.

Pause…

"My mind's a bit fuzzy right now…" Mephiles started to frown a bit in confusion. "But… what exactly happened? I remember feeling dizzy… then I must have fallen, because you were holding me up… and then I could barely make out Rouge standing over me, telling me not to give up or something…" He furrowed his brow slightly as he tried recalling the last thing he remembered. "That's all, really..."

He waited for a reply. The growing silence was becoming a bit unnerving.

"_Please _tell me I didn't start freaking out…" The shade added with a hint of pleading in his voice.

"You didn't…"

Mephiles breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, okay… but what happened?"

"… You… fainted… and then ran a high fever…" Shadow decided not to tell him the whole of what had happened after he passed out before the nurse could come. From the looks of it, he started to have febrile convulsions as a result of his suddenly high fever, twitching and shaking uncontrollably for at least a good quarter of an hour before falling limp again with a weak moan, this time half conscious, and spouting out random blather like a fool until he tired himself out and fell asleep from exhaustion. It was best that he didn't know about that…

"Is that all?"

"Yep…" Shadow lied, fixing his attention back to a magazine he had been reading earlier.

Mephiles frowned.

"Are you lying to me?" He said slowly.

"What? Of course not!" Shadow waved a hand carelessly, wondering how he could have even guessed. "What makes you say that?"

"I dunno… It just sounded like you said that fast, or something." The shade shrugged. He turned his head a bit to glance out the window, before forcing a laugh. "I know… it sound's silly…"

"I suppose in your situation… it's pretty logical…"

"Think so?"

Shadow nodded, determined not to look up from his magazine, having learned over the past few months that Mephiles had a pretty uncanny ability to detect dishonesty if he stared at you long enough, most likely because he used to be such a good liar himself.

"Well…" Mephiles started. "It's not like you'd lie to me, or anything… so, I trust you…"

Shadow almost cringed, but countered it before Mephiles could notice.

…

…

"Uh… Shadow?"

"Hmmm?"

Pause.

"You're… uh, you're reading the book upside down…"

…

…

…

"I knew that…"

* * *

After a whole afternoon's worth of testing, which Mephiles was very reluctant to do… it was decided that he was allowed to go back home, so long as a close watch was kept on him. Also reluctant about being watched, the shade agreed as long as it meant leaving the medical facility. Like it was said before… he downright hated hospitals. No questions asked.

He was also a bit anxious to see his Chaos, having spent a whole night away from them, so there wasn't a doubt in his mind that Krystal and Sharpe were probably going to be a bit mad for leaving them alone. Sharpe might have even got into trouble around the house, perhaps even leaving lights on, clawing on the couch, or strewing the toilet paper like streamers all around the house.

Once home, it was discovered that Sharpe had instead shredded up Mephiles' pillow he kept by the couch when not asleep. Pluff balls of polyester stuffing strewn across the floor, littered like badly fallen snow. Raising an eyebrow, Mephiles picked up the scrap of fabric he had assumed must have been the part of the pillow that held the stuffing… fifty-something pieces ago…

"… I honestly don't know where he gets these destructive tendencies…" He muttered as he tried to pick up what was left to call at least something resembling that had once been a pillow. "… Can't have gotten it from me…"

He didn't notice the snort of laughter Shadow muffled with his hand, as well as Rouge looking up at the ceiling, also trying not to laugh.

As it turned out, Krystal had been hiding between two couch cushions, apparently staying out of her brother's way when he had mauled the pillow. When Mephiles had picked up at least half of the mess, she crawled out of her hiding place, rubbing at her green eyes, obviously having been asleep. She blinked and with a happy cry, she pounced from the couch onto Mephiles' head, nuzzling hers into his quills.

"Hey, there, Krystal… have you seen Sharpe?"

With a nod of the head, she pointed down the hallway with a "Chao…", where Sharpe was currently pulling towels out of the closet and throwing them haphazardly at the wall, where they fell in a messy pile.

The Chao only looked up when he heard the sound of a throat clearing, and he tore his attention from his task. It was evident in his red eyes that he knew that he was totally busted.

"Sharpe… can you please explain this?" Mephiles held up the shredded remains of his head cushion in one hand, a frown on his face.

Sharpe looked around and considered his options.

…

…

There seemed to be only one…

"Chao?" He looked up questioningly, though he knew full well what the shade was talking about.

"This…"

"Chao…" Sharpe shrugged before throwing a puppy eyed face, trying to get himself out of trouble.

Mephiles frown stayed on his face, but a hint of a smile was beginning to show.

"You're just too cute for your own good sometimes, y'know that right?"

"Chao!"

"But, what am I gonna do about this?" Mephiles asked Shadow and Rouge, holding up his handful of stuff again. "It can't be used now…"

"We'll just get another one…"

"But… I've had this one for a while… It won't be the same…"

"Sure it will…" Shadow assured… or tried to. "It's just a pillow after all…"

"But… it was _my_ pillow… _mine…_"

"We'll just get another one…"

"But…"

"We'll get another one." Shadow narrowed his eyes in mild annoyance at Mephiles, who flinched slightly.

"Okay… I see…" The crystalline hedgehog sat down slowly, his ears flat against his head, making Krystal bat at them. "I-i get it… Sorry…"

As a new pillow was being gotten, Mephiles was sitting with his hand to his forehead, his headache a bit of a dull twinge. As he thought about Dark's next move, Krystal was burying her eggshell covered head into his chest fluff.

_Dark could get me at any given time… so I should be sure to take extra care in what I do, so I can't get hurt more…_

He was silent for a while before muttering: "Plastic cups for now…"

* * *

Plastic cups... because they won't shatter if he drops them...

Poor Meph... his life's gonna be tough for a while.

Hope this chapter wasn't a bore...

See ya next time :D

RaeLogan


	14. Soup?

Sorry for the lateness of this... I've been busy with these things:

1. My family's preperation for my 18th birthday, which is on thursday the 12th...

2. Grad Nite preperation, which is on wendsday the 11th, meaning I'm in DisneyLand during the early hours of my birthday.

3. Graduation preperation, which is on monday the 16th, so I have to keep my grade nice and high for two last classes. I have one week of school left after this monday... OMG! I'm almost an adult by age!

4. Mom wants to take me to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday, but we can't do it on thursday, because I would have just gotten home from Grad Nite and a half day of school, plus I would want to hook up my "new" GameCube I'm geting, with SA2: Battle (Finally! And I'm only 7 years late in getting it...). We can't do it on friday, because my sister-in-law and cousin won't be home, and we can't leave them out, wendsday's off because of Grad Nite, so we'd have to do it on tuesday. So I may be MIA for a good solid three to four days...

5. And finally... I've been battling "Senoritis", a "disease" that only Seniors in High School get (though a "strain" has adapted for Juniors, known as "Junioritis"...), which makes us very lazy, not wanting to do schoolwork, and makes us waant to goof around... so far, I've diverted it with a daily Sudoku puzzle... best of luck to me...

I should just give you the chapter now... hope you like it :D

* * *

His time back home was not without its problems. By nighttime… Dark had struck Mephiles again.

He had been pulling a plastic cup out of the cabinet when, quite suddenly, the cup fell to the ground and hit it with a plastic **CLUNK**. Mephiles braced a hand onto the counter and leaned his weight into it as a sharp pain shot through his stomach, prompting him to press his hand against his side as the pain subsided to a dull ache.

"Oh, _this_ is perfect…" Mephiles growled sarcastically, shifting his eyes upward, away from the counter. "… _why _can't you just leave me be?"

'_Like I said… I'm gonna see just how long you can last before you give up…_'

"Good luck with _that…_" Mephiles snapped as he made his way to the couch, leaning on the walls and counters on the way there for support. Once there, he sighed heavily, flopped onto his side and curled up with a shiver. "… I'm not giving up easily…"

'_Thought you might say that… neither am I…_'

"Oh, joy… So what are you going to do? I won't be able to throw up, because I haven't eaten…"

'_True… but there are other things I could do…_'

"Such as..?" Mephiles didn't like how this was going. He frowned and sat up, wondering what he should do.

'_Simple… I'm sure you know that _you_ tend to hallucinate when you have a fever… Am I right, Mephy Boy?_'

"Don't you even _dare…_" Mephiles growled threateningly, his quills puffing out. "I have enough problems right now… I don't need anything like that added to my list..."

'_How does a one-oh-six sound? Too high?_'

"Are you trying to kill me? That's too dangerous; it'd raise itself and it'd lead from one thing to another!"

'_One-oh-four then?_'

"Oh… I _hate_ you…"

"_One-oh-four it is._"

Within minutes, Mephiles felt a very obvious change in his body temperature. Within seconds after the discovery, his fur was damp with sweat, and he was shivering.

Fever… but also feeling cold?

This wasn't good…

He should find Shadow or Rouge, and let them know…

It'd be easier to do if his wasn't starting to feel weak-kneed.

"Great… now what?" The shade murmured to himself with a shake of his head. He blinked and widened his eyes before squinting. He frowned. "… Has that wall always been orange? 'Cause I don't think so…"

He trailed off before letting loose a frustrated groan.

He was already starting to see things…

Luckily for him, he had been heard and it wasn't long before someone, namely two people came to check on him. I'm sure there is no need to say who…

Before questions could be asked, Mephiles had already given them a pretty good explanation.

"He's _messing_ with me again! He's messing with me, because I'm _sure_ that wall isn't orange!" He was waving a hand frantically at the wall in question, which was in fact a lightish, tannish brown. "He gave me a fever, and now I'm seeing things! In fact, I'm not even sure if you're really there…" He added the last sentence as an afterthought, raising an eyebrow, and shaking his head slowly.

"Well… I know _I'm_ here…" Rouge said, trying to be reassuring to the somewhat confused crystalline hedgehog. "And I know Shadow's standing right there… So aside from seeing an orange wall… I think your okay…"

"Actually… the whole room seems orange now…" Mephiles added uneasily, placing his hands over his eyes, because he found orange to be too bright of a color, next to yellow, of course. "The furniture even… I'm… just… gonna lie down now… Dark gave me a one-oh-four fever, so now my head hurts again… owww…"

"He can control your temperature now?"

"Sadly… he's always have, apparently… can we do something about this? I don't want another 'bad fever' episode… _Any_thing would be helpful…" He half groaned, his headache not helping him in anyway possible…

Finding an aid for him was not an easy thing, considering his unusual reaction to most substances. His last usage of Tylenol had led to uncontrollable fits of laughter that he himself could not explain, and Kaopectate, which was supposed to help with indigestion, actually upset his stomach even _worse_. And no one wanted to even _mention_ his experience with Benadryl… but if you _must_ know… let's just say he was having trouble keeping his mind focused on _sensible_ things…

Their best bet was hoping he could just sleep it off…

He was hoping for a better answer, but nonetheless, he accepted it… the excessive amount of orange color in the room was making him jittery anyway…

"Please wake me up if something seems off, okay?"

"You think we _wouldn't?_"

"Not really… I'm saying this for the sake of saying something…" The shade muttered, burying his face into his new pillow, which just didn't have the feel of the old one like his did…

He missed his old pillow already…

Wait… now this was just silly…

I mean, he knew he shouldn't have to feel attached to an inanimate object… but… after all… it was one of his own possessions… his… and this pillow just wasn't quite the same…

But he had bigger things to worry about… he knew that, so he just had to deal with his trivial little problem until this much larger one was over with…

Which could be a while…

He yawned and curled up, his mind fading off slowly as his exhaustion became too much to ignore…

* * *

Awakening in what he could guess to be at least a few hours later, Mephiles felt very dizzy; his head was spinning so much that he didn't dare try to move. Not opening his eyes, he felt something damp and cold that had been placed on his forehead, most likely a damp cloth. Come to think of it… his fur felt a bit damper then he last noticed…

Now he tried to open his eyes, and could only squint a little, finding his vision to be somewhat blurred.

He felt something of a plastic feel get put gently in his ear and he heard a click before it was removed.

"It's a one-oh-four-point-six now…" He heard Shadow announce to who he would guess was Rouge. "It's a little more then half a degree higher, but I don't think we would have to make this as an emergency until it hits one-oh-five…"

"Well… then I guess the best we can do is try to bring it down… Is the cloth still damp?"

Yep… it was most definitely a cloth. At least his rational thinking was still intact… that was a good sign…

Shadow was now prodding at the cloth with his index finger, which was in turn agitating Mephiles' headache a little more. Out of pure instinct, his hand shot up and closed around Shadow's wrist, which caused the hybrid hedgehog to jump slightly. Mephiles took care as to not squeeze the wrist too hard, and sent a frown at the Shadow.

"Please don't do that…" Was the crystalline hedgehog's response to all of this.

"Nice to see you're awake now… Is the room still orange?"

"Wha..?" He had momentarily forgotten about his problem from a few hours previous.

"Earlier… you said the room looked orange to you…"

"Huh? What… Oh!" It took a little while for it to kick in, but the memory finally came back. He glanced around quickly. "No… not anymore…"

"I suppose that's a good sign…"

"What were you just doing?"

"Huh?"

"That thing you just stuck in my ear… what was that?" Mephiles fixed his eyes on the object in question, which was still in Shadow's hand. Shadow followed his line of vision and finally got what the question was about.

"This is an ear thermometer. I was checking if your temperature had gotten any higher…"

"Did it..?"

"A little, but not too much to worry about…"

"I feel dizzy…" Mephiles added, realizing once more of his current problem. "… I feel like the room won't stop moving… what's wrong with me?"

There was a pause before Shadow asked: "Did you eat anything yet?"

"No… Dark was trying to make me vomit earlier… so I haven't had anything since this morning…"

"That's at least a good twelve hours or so, because it's after nine now… it's probably that…"

"But I don't feel like eating… he's probably going to make me throw up again…"

"You'll have to eat eventually…"

"Probably… but I don't feel like it now…"

"We're getting you something right now…"

"I said no…"

"You won't feel much better until you do…"

"But…"

"How does soup sound?" Shadow was pretty much ignoring Mephiles' protests, which earned a growl of frustration from the shade, who narrowed his eyes as he sat up slowly, using the back of the couch for support. "Chicken noodle's a good choice; very helpful, often used for those who aren't feeling well, and won't make you sicker. And everyone likes it…"

"Do I _have_ to?"

"There's no milk in it…"

"Are you _trying_ to tempt me?"

"In short… yes… yes I am…"

"He's not gonna leave me alone until I say 'yes', huh?" Mephiles directed at Rouge, shifting his eyes in her direction.

"Shadow rarely gives up on anything…"

"I figured that… fine…" The shade finally gave in with a toss of both hands in the air. "I give up… you can get me some soup… but if Dark makes me even sicker… I want to be able to at least say 'I told you so'…"

"You're just like a kid sometimes…" Shadow added, trying hard not to laugh. "Y'know that, right?"

"I am _not!_" Mephiles folded his arms and pouted, totally unaware of how his actions just contradicted himself, and helped to prove Shadow's point even more. "I am _not_ a kid!"

"_How_ old are you?"

Mephiles paused, and blinked absentmindedly for a moment, before frowning.

"That doesn't count…" He growled.

* * *

Meph's such a kid :D

Hope you liked this one... there won't be an update probably this week... sorry :(


	15. Contemplation

Thank you for waiting for me to add to this. Been a bit busy... I just graduated on Monday! And the funny part: Mom almost hit my old principal with my wallet when she had to drop it from the stadium to let me get my ID card to claim my diploma. In all due respect... they said I couldn't carry anything with me during the ceremony... so I was following thier instructions. But, as I am no longer a student, that wasn't held against me. Yay for loopholes!

This chapter has a little part with a focus on Dark, so I'm sure that'll help make up for the long wait.

Oh, and thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday and graduation! Thank you so much :D

* * *

Spoon held loosely in his hand, Mephiles prodded his soup absentmindedly with a small frown, lifting a piece of chicken out of the bowl, tilting the spoon a little, and letting the piece fall back into the soup with a soft splash.

"I'm not so sure about this…" He slowly, shaking his head and pushing the tray away. "I'd hate to end up barfing it all up on something like the couch, y'know? Being as I sleep here…" The thought of it made him wrinkle his nose, a small frown inching onto his face.

"Well… if Dark's smart… he'd let you eat, or else you'd end up _really_ sick."

"How so?" Mephiles perked his ears up at this.

"Simple… if you don't eat enough, your body would stop working properly. You'd react to stuff slower, be more exhausted, and more likely to get an infection from something. Your body would eventually eat itself if he tries to keep you from doing this for a month or so… you'd even be at risk for heart failure…" Shadow made sure to say all of this quite clearly. Which was causing Mephiles to panic.

"Wait-WHAT?!" His voice came out as somewhat of a strangled squeak, fear settling itself in his expression.

"I _said…_ if Dark is smart… he'd know _not_ to do that…" Shadow was trying to help Mephiles catch on. "He'd know that would kill you… which is what he doesn't want to do…"

Almost immediately, Mephiles felt his temperature go down just a little, and his sick feeling disappeared some. He heard Dark growl softly, obviously a bit angry from learning that.

"Oh… I get it now… thanks…" Mephiles smiled weakly, half tempted to giggle at this, but figured not to, on account of this being considered a little bit of strange behavior, which was what he wanted to avoid.

Balancing the spoon on the back of his hand he turned his attention back to the bowl of soup.

His stomach growled loudly and he realized just how hungry he really was. The soup _did_ look great, and he was certain Dark wasn't going to send it back up…

He flashed a grin and snatched the bowl from the tray. Within seconds, he was already half done, before he realized he was being watched. Looking up, his mouth full of the soup, and a noodle trailing from his mouth, he saw that Rouge and Shadow were trying hard not to laugh.

Without even blinking, his muzzle's shade shifted a few shades of pink from embarrassment as he swallowed what was in his mouth, and continued eating, but slower this time, keeping his narrowed eyes fixed on his friends.

Once he was finished, he set the bowl and spoon on the ground by the couch and sighed.

"I feel much better now…" He announced, though he didn't really feel reason to. He just felt like talking. Filling the silence. Y'know… that kinda thing…

Crisscrossing his fingers together, he placed his hands behind his head and leaned back to stare at the ceiling.

"What are we going to do about him?" He clenched his teeth together in thought, lowering his eyebrows. "I see no way… No way with a good outcome for me, anyway…"

Looking to the side, he spotted their reprimanding looks and sat up quickly, waving a hand halfheartedly.

"I'm not thinking about trying _that _again!" He reassured them, instantly realizing what they had thought. "First off, that was _stupid_ of me to even try, and secondly… I'm sure you'll remember that I was out of my head with desperation… a heat of the moment thought, really… I wasn't thinking clearly…"

"Still… you should keep your mind from straying in that general direction…" Shadow added with an intense stare, dead serious. "We wouldn't want Dark to warp anything else in the wrong way…"

"I know… I know… I know…" Mephiles repeated his response to help emphasize what he meant quite clearly. "I'm pretty sure I learned my lesson…"

At that, he brushed a hand against the right side of his face as he eased the hand to the top of his head, taking note of the slight sting from Rae's backhand. However… it didn't quite bother him as much as the sore spot on the top of his head did.

Perhaps slamming it into both the coffee and the tree wasn't the best of his ideas… he was actually quite surprised that he didn't at least get a concussion from all those hits. Aside from the sensitivity… all that was really noticeable was a slight bald spot from his quills embedding into the trunk and tearing loose. But, over the past forty-eight hours, the quills were already beginning to grow back, now only visible as a thin, fuzzy layer of dark blue. The crystals won't be back until the quills were back to their right length… perhaps in a week…

"_Mephiles?_"

"Huh?" Said hedgehog was pulled swiftly out of his thoughts at the sound of a somewhat impatient voice.

"I said: 'Are you okay?'"

It occurred to Mephiles that he had been holding his hand to his sore spot, and now noticed that his entire head felt sore. Well, come to think of it… that could be the source of his headache… which seemed more prominent in the upper right side of his head…

"Aside from this blasted headache… yeah… I'm okay…"

"Headache?"

"I think it's from hitting my head so many times… I'm actually quite surprised I didn't get a concussion or anything… God, what was I thinking?"

Pause.

He twitched an ear for a moment, before his frown deepened. A sigh escaped him, and he closed his eyes, moving his hand down to cover them, teeth clenched together tightly.

"I shouldn't have given him any ideas…" He murmured, shaking his head slowly. "Vertigo… he's given me _vertigo…_"

He cursed inwardly and lifted his hand just enough to see again.

_Great…_

This was a little hindering.And _that_ was an understatement.

However, he refused to give in, because that would mean that Dark would have won, and that was something that he wanted to avoid. Therefore, he wasn't going to let this be a problem. He'll push it aside if he had to, as long as Dark didn't know he was getting at him. He was going to prove to the little inner demon that he was the dominant one now, and nothing was going to change that.

He was Mephiles the Dark, and _nothing_ was going to bring him down…

However, screaming out in pure frustration was looking more tempting as the time passed, but out of consideration to Shadow and Rouge, he figured to at least wait until he was alone to do that, just so they didn't needlessly worry more about him. After all, it seemed bad enough to him that they had to help deal with his problems… he felt like he was asking too much of them.

But, if it _was_ too much, he was sure they would have let him know… right?

Anyway, he placed his hand back over his eyes, and swiveled his ears down, remaining quite silent until his dizzy spell passed.

Once it did, he heard Dark scoff in annoyance at Mephiles' resistance to his newest, and to be quite frank, _feeble_ attempt to cave him in. In fact, Mephiles would have said just to tick him off: "Is that all you've _got?_"… but thought better of it, knowing that that would have led to something possibly disastrous.

"Heh, I win this one…" He couldn't help but grin at that one, just to mock Dark. Which caused the demon to growl, but not really able to do anything. "So… you said it was after nine already?" He directed this at Shadow and Rouge, whom had not yet left the room.

"Actually, it's almost after ten…"

"Ah, so that day's pretty much over… can't really do anything now, I guess…"

"Not really, unless you want to catch any of those late at night shows or something…"

"Ooh, 'Adult Swim' should be on now." His eyes actually lit up with a bit of excitement, any traces of his affliction gone from sight. "That'd be nice… a little bit of senseless but funny programming aimed at for late night viewers should keep my mind occupied."

"Are… you just… babbling?"

"Yes… yes I am… I'm doing this keep myself from straying… why do you ask?"

"No reason…" Shadow shook his head.

And indeed, it was on, so Mephiles was quite happy to let his attention be led to watching animated action figures and toys make parodies of numerous movies, cartoons, comics, games, catchphrases, products and overly used concepts, sometimes mashing them together to make a great three minute skit of something along the lines of a well known comic strip such as "Peanuts" being crossed with Stephen King and hint of Batman… the Adam West one… with a reference to Val Kilmer.

Of course, this would only last him only a quarter of an hour, in which a new short show would come on, and quite hopefully maybe a "Family Guy" episode… if it wasn't already too late in the night by that point…

And, quite understandably… he wasn't in the mood for "Death Note"… so he planned to just call it a night once that came on…

* * *

Morning came without a problem. Mephiles was not bothered at all by Dark, which was a bit surprising. Surely, Dark would have taken this as a chance to get him when he was the most vulnerable and maybe even mess with his dreams, but he seemed to have let the night pass by without even considering.

Mephiles wasn't complaining… he was in fact very pleased at that. It made his day better.

But he knew he shouldn't count on it staying like that for very long. Dark was sure to be waiting once Mephiles let his guard down completely, and once that happened, he would try his next trick… so long as it wasn't going to lead to any lasting damage to Mephiles…

That was a little flaw in his plan.

He wanted to push Mephiles far enough to make him give in and let him take over… _but _he also had to make sure not to lead to any serious injuries or problems. Which was _not_ his specialty. He was tempted to just let everything he could thing of happen and reduce his good side to a quivering, terrified, broken mess of a hedgehog in a matter of hours… but given the slight fragileness of Mephiles himself, that doing so would be back. The feral state was enough proof to him, now that he thought about it. He had no part in _that… _meaning that Mephiles was indeed capable of pure insanity if push too far, but was not, however, accountable for his actions, because neither of the two was in control.

It would seem to Dark that he might be underestimating what Mephiles was really capable on his own. And if the demon had learned well enough from his past mistakes… it was that underestimating something could very well be the end of your plans or even yourself.

Could it be that there was more to his good side than what he had thought previously? Could Mephiles very well be his… equal?

Maybe even… more _powerful,_ but not even realize it?

He had heard of these kinds of things, and up until now… it never really worried him.

After all… _he _was what had made Mephiles a demonic little monster ten months ago… right? It was all him… wasn't it?

Dark shook his head lightly. Why was he worrying himself with such trivial little things? He was letting his anxiousness of having this drag out get to him… yeah, that was it… he was sure of it…

He was Dark. A demon. About as dark and evil as they come. Powerful, too.

Someone like Mephiles couldn't beat him. Doesn't even stand a chance… right?

…

Of course not! That was stupid to even _suggest_ that!

…

But…

…

If this was all true…

…

…

Why wasn't his maniacal laughter helping him feel secure about it?

* * *

Ooh... is Dark being doubtful now?

This just keeps getting better... and it still has a long way to go!

See you next time :D


	16. I'm My Own Worst Enemy

Oh, boy... _what _have I written? I'm trying to shift this to the conclusion now, so we will be entering the rising action of the climax.

side note, I was listening to "Given Up" by Linkin Park (Minutes to Midnight CD) while I wrote this... If you haven't heard it yet, I don't really suggest it if you hate cussing, as the "F" word is mentioned quite a few time, but it overall feels like how Mephiles has had to fight against Dark.

Here's why... aw screw this, here's the lyrics to half of the song so you can see what I mean:

_Waking in a sweat again  
Another day's been laid to waste  
In my disgrace  
Stuck in my head again  
Feels like I'll never leave this place  
There's no escape  
I'm my own worst enemy  
_

_I've given up  
I'm sick of feeling  
Is there nothing you can say?  
Take this all away  
I'm suffocating  
Tell me what the f!ck is wrong with me  
_

_I don't know what to take  
Thought I was focused but I'm scared  
I'm not prepared  
I hyperventilate  
Looking for help somehow somewhere  
And no one cares  
I'm my own worst enemy_

...

Kinda reminds you about Mephiles' thoughts on Dark, huh? So, because of that, this chapter is about as dark as I write them, so Meph's gonna... aw, I'll just let you read it...

Enjoy :D

* * *

Dark was mad. He had not counted on this. He had to find a way to overcome this minor setback.

But everything he threw at the shadow was easily overcome in one way or another…

Almost everything…

"_Of course… why didn't I think of that earlier?_" He nearly slapped his own head out of stupidity. "_I'd say another take over is in order… but… why not change it up a bit?_" He had a stroke of brilliance grace through his devious mind. It was simple: Why not twist Mephiles' thoughts and misdirect them? He'd have no idea what would be going on, really… and if he was lucky, Dark could even gain a little control… just enough to cause trouble. It was simple, to the point, and easy…

His laughter was bringing back a little more confidence as he headed off to the deepest, most central part of Mephiles' mind, ready to do as he pleased.

He was going to have fun…

* * *

Mephiles was completely unaware of the newest attack. In fact, he thought he was being given a break at most. Nothing would lead him to believe otherwise. Nothing at all.

He passed off his lightheadedness as part of his exhaustion from the whole ordeal. After all, _how _many times had his head been hit within the week? Definitely more than he would bother to count if his head was feeling a little clearer.

He figured if he just lay down, that it might go away sooner. He wasn't really one for being dizzy at all… it made it a little difficult to walk right.

He held the pillow over his eyes to block out any light, which was beginning to turn his problem into a headache. He planned to see if ten minutes of laying still would be enough time first. If not, he'd try again.

Within minutes, however, he was mumbling involuntarily under his breath, shaking his head slowly, so quietly, that it sounded like a series of low growls. Whatever it was, he was fighting against something, because he shook his head more frantically as the time passed, arching his back and pressing the pillow harder onto his head. Finally, he cried out in fright as his body relaxed and fell limp as his chest heaved up and down as if he had just been running for a long time, the pillow falling to the floor beside the couch.

"… What… happ… ened..?" He panted out, swallowing back something that tried to inch up his throat. He let his eyes drift shut for a moment, shaking his head as he tried to sort out what had just happened. "Urgh… I don't … feel too well… at all…"

He was completely damp with sweat, his chest area feeling even more so from the extra fur there. His chest felt a little tight, making it harder to breathe.

He was plagued with chills and dizziness once again and his entire body felt jumpy.

Unease had settled in his stomach, wrapping around it tightly and clenching it painfully enough he might have thought it was cramping instead. But, unfortunately, he felt too weak to move and was unable to attempt anything to feel even a little bit of relief, so he was stuck moaning in pain softly, his voice too tired to be any louder.

Though in some amount of pain, he refused to let himself break down and cry, knowing that Dark might take that as a sign of defeat, and maybe even become more relentless in his torment of Mephiles.

He felt a hand press gently onto his forehead, and he opened his eyes swiftly. For a moment, he couldn't see anything but blurred shapes and colors, but a few blinks cleared up his vision quite well.

Rouge was standing over him, worry placed on her face as she wiped off the sweat from his face with a dishtowel.

"What's wrong?" She whispered to him, the concern growing more evident as the seconds passed. "We heard you scream… you were just moaning right now…"

Mephiles shifted his weight uncomfortably for a moment before answering faintly through clenched teeth.

"… I dunno… I just felt dizzy… I think I blacked out or something… but my stomach hurts now… and I can barely move… to do anything about it…"

"How badly?"

Unable to give a good measurement of pain, he simply said as he squeezed his eyes shut again: "… It _hurts…_"

"… You're also burning up. Shadow's getting an ice pack to bring down this fever…"

"… Ah?" He hadn't even noticed that he had gotten yet another fever, being as his attention was more focused on somewhat more important matters… though it could explain the headache, dizziness and sweating. "… Fever? I… hadn't noticed…"

"… You're shaking…"

"… Didn't… notice that either…"

Pause.

"Rouge… is it possible to die from something like this?"

He opened his eyes again and almost cringed when he saw her stare at him hard.

"You're not going to die from any of this." She said flatly. "_Don't_ start thinking like that…"

"I'm just saying…"

"Don't."

"Okay…" He said slowly, his voice trailing off at the end of the short sentence as he nodded his head lightly.

His thoughts felt like they were straying, unable to fix themselves in one place and stay. They all seemed to try to head for the same direction… and he didn't know why.

Once Shadow entered the room, however… that was when everything took a downward spiral to chaos.

Immediately, Mephiles' eyes widened and suddenly glazed over without any warning. Then they narrowed and he bared his teeth as he started to pant fast.

"_Get _away_ from me…_" He growled as shrank away, lifting a hand up and pointing his claws in Shadow's general direction. "_This is all _your_ fault…_"

Sitting up the best he could, he spat out "_I HATE YOU!_" as his quills and fur stood on end, his eyes livid and wide as he hissed "_I hate you… you ruined my life! I hate you, Shadow! I _hate_ you!_"

Mephiles was obviously not himself, or else he wouldn't be acting like this. It was obvious that Dark was behind this one. But… how to solve it?

"Calm down… and think about this for a minute…" Shadow tried, setting down the ice pack slowly and raising his hands up carefully to show there was nothing to worry about.

Mephiles was anything but calm right now. He was now on his feet, spitting out harsh words and negative emotions at the hybrid hedgehog.

"_Why? So you can just trick me or something? No! I _know_ you really hate me! I know that you really want me _dead!_ What did I ever do to you to begin with? NOTHING! _None_ of this would have ever happened if you had just left me alone from the very start!!_"

"I don't want- Wait! Who ever said that?"

"_No one needs to, Shadow… I've figured it out already…_"

"You figured it out… or did Dark?"

"_What are you _talking_ about?_"

"Think about it… would you really be thinking these things? Would you even be _saying _them?"

"_Shut up! I'm not gonna get tricked again!_"

"You're about to be if you keep listening to 'yourself'!"

"_Why should I trust you? I'm as I am _because _of you…_"

"I'm your friend…"

"_Liar!_" Mephiles barked, shaking his head in total disbelief."_You never even _liked_ me… you just put up with me. You hate me…_"

"If I did… would I have tried to help you before? If I really did hate you, shouldn't I have just left you behind… let you get hurt? Let you drown? Let the Doctor keep you in that tank?" Shadow was trying to reason with him.

But it wasn't getting through.

Mephiles snarled and launched himself at Shadow in a vicious and hostile attack of teeth and claws.

Shadow, having dealt with this enough times, Chaos Snapped out of the way, leaving the shade to slash nothing.

"_Where are you, you jerk?!_" Mephiles snapped, balling his fists tightly, totally ignoring that Rouge was even there. She was obviously not a target of his, so to him right now, she was as good as not there. "_Must be nice to be able to escape when you're cornered! Where are you?! Stop hiding!_"

A flash of blue light and Mephiles suddenly screeched in pain and doubled over, holding his stomach with both arms, Shadow having appeared right beside him and kicking him directly in the stomach. Rouge gasped, having known that Mephiles had been in pain there, and that possibly made it worse.

"Please, stop… I don't want to have to hurt you to get you to…" Shadow said seriously, shaking his head as he eyed Mephiles with concern. He hoped he hadn't hit him too hard.

"_Oh, really..?_" Mephiles whispered, eyes squinting from the pain as he fell on his side. "_Could have… fooled me…_" He swallowed the drool that was pooling in his mouth and tried to hold back his shaking, which was making it hard to stay still. He coughed as he tried to catch his breath, gasping a few times, starting to feel dizzy again.

Taking another breath, he tried to make it to his feet, but he collapsed when he tried to stand.

"_I HATE YOU!_" He screamed out, trying once more to stand, having to brace a hand to the couch to keep from falling again, his other arm pressed against his stomach. He shook his head, the crystal tips of his quills clattering against each other from the force put into this action. "_I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I-_"

He never finished what he was saying. He grunted and his eyes rolled back after the sound of a hand hitting something was heard. All his anger faded from his features and he dropped to the ground in one swift move, collapsing in a heap on the floor. Rouge was behind him, her hand held up. She clenched it into a lightly held fist and shook her head, her expression unreadable.

"He was going to end up hurting himself…" She told Shadow, who had not expected that. "The way he was acting… he would have gotten hurt anyway. His stomach was already in pain to begin with, so that kick made it _worse_ for him..." She added that last part with a glare at Shadow, who suddenly felt very bad for doing that, his ears flipping down, and his eyes downcast.

"Oops… I… hope I didn't… hurt him… badly…"

"Yes… let's hope so… What do we do now? We can't leave him like this…"

"Well… my first suggestion would be to tie him up so he can't do anything drastic…" Shadow said as he braced the former demon under the arms and pulled him back onto the couch. Mephiles groaned and curled up tightly on his side, both arms around his stomach. "But the rational thinking side of me is saying that it would only freak him out when he woke up." Shadow looked at Mephiles and sighed. "I'd say that'd happen in an hour or so…"

Pause.

"You… don't think he meant all that… do you?"

"Huh?"

"That he thinks I hate him and that he hates me… you don't think..?"

"He doesn't mean that… that was Dark talking, I'm sure…"

"It _is _my fault he's what he is, right? So really… this is kinda my fault… right?"  
"It was already set in time that you had to do that… neither of you are at fault here…"

"But, I could have chose not to, right?"

"…"

"He's right… this is my fault…"

"That wasn't Mephiles. Mephiles doesn't think like that…"

"His eyes were same colors as Mephiles'…"

"Dark must have done something to him. That was not our Mephiles."

"What do we do then?"

"Just wait and see what happens next."

"What if he just loses it again? Should I stay out of the room when he wakes up?"

"I dunno, maybe… it might be a good idea if that does happen again…"

Shadow nodded, wondering just what they were going to do about this. He turned his attention back to the hedgehog on the couch, feeling disheartened as he saw a bit more clearly just what kind of condition the shade was in.

Mephiles was still curled up on his side, his muzzle now a sickly shade of his naturally pale color. Upon closer inspection, one could see that his quill clumps were beginning to split apart at the ends, and even the shard like ends were starting to dull around the edges. Sweat beaded and glistened on his face, and an occasional tremor racked trough him. He definitely looked sick now.

Reluctantly, Shadow left the room, knowing that his presence might set of something again…

* * *

"_Mephy Boy… hey, how are you?_"

Mephiles took a while to resister what was going on. The endless void of darkness around him didn't immediately strike anything in his brain, which felt like it had shifted into a lower gear.

Slowly, he furrowed his brow and frowned as he lifted his head, taking in where he was as slowly as he was even aware that he was awake. He realized he was sitting on the ground, his hands flat on the ground, bracing him as he leaning his weight into them.

He uttered a questioning moan, his eyes half closed. How did he get here again? He was just talking to Rouge… wasn't he?

"_Ah, so you don't remember anything?_" Dark breathed excitedly in his ear, Mephiles jumping a little, having not noticed his dark reflection being so close to him.

"… Wha… what are you talking… about..?" Mephiles put some effort into pushing this off of his tongue, which wasn't wanting to work properly.

"_Oh, nothing much… just that Shadow thinks you absolutely hate him now…_"

Mephiles eyes suddenly widened without warning and he inhaled sharply.

"_What _have you done?" He demanded, his eyes flashing dangerously now that his attention was awakened fully. He would have moved, but he felt a little numb, and he wasn't going to give Dark any indication of that. "_What_ did you do?!"

"_Nothing… It was all you…_"

"No… that's impossible… I wouldn't have-"

"_You finally figured out that this was all Shadow's fault… He's the one you should hate, not me…_"

"No! Th-that's not true! What did you do to him?!" Mephiles started to pick himself up off the ground, lifting his gaze to lock it with Dark's fiercely as he narrowed his eyes.

"_Nothing… You tried to attack him, and he got out of the way. Oh, the things you said…_"

"No! No, you liar! _You_ must have done something! It wasn't-I couldn't have… I-" Mephiles was starting to stammer. Something was telling him that Dark wasn't lying, which was saying something for two things. One: That was unusual because Dark was a grade A liar, and Two: Mephiles was an exceptional detector of deceit.

If his skills weren't working… then…

Mephiles' eyes widened as far as he could and he collapsed to the ground when his legs gave out.

"_NO!_" He cried out in anguish, panting heavily as another spell of vertigo hit him. "You-I-I-I _HATE_ YOU! I HATE YOU!"

A hand hit the ground as he braced himself as his dizziness was coupled with both hyperventilation and a sharp pain in his chest. His free hand clutched at his heart tightly as he tried to force himself to breathe right.

His stomach was starting to hurt again, and before he knew it, he gagged roughly and a few seconds later led to him staring down dizzily at a puddle of his own vomit. His stomach turned over and twisted, threatening to make him do it again once the disgusting scent of it reached his nose, which prompted him to shove himself away from it and crawl backwards, finally coming to a rest about several feet away, an arm around his stomach, one hand clamped to his mouth as he shook from horror, breathing deeply though his nose, eyes squeezed shut, a muffled moan emitting from him as he shook his head.

"_Oh, are you feeling sick, Mephy? Maybe if we tried this another time?_" Dark snorted in mock concern, completely enjoying the suffering and torment Mephiles was enduring. He walked over to the shade, leaning into his ear again and whispering: "_You know… there is a way to make this all stop… and all it takes is just three little words…_"

"… N… no…" Mephiles murmured, shaking his head slowly, dropping his hand, and frowning at Dark in hatred as he opened his eyes again. "I'm not… giving up… I'm not letting you win…"

There was a pause and a hand slapped into his face, the sharp crystal claws curling in and leaving five scratches across the side of his face. He yelped in pain, bringing a hand to the injury, shaking as it stung.

"_You really are stubborn… stubborn and stupid…_" Dark scowled, licking off the small amount of blood that had transferred to his claws. He frowned, baring his teeth at Mephiles, who was determined not to cry. "_You have the option to quit this, and yet you insist on taking the choice that helps others and not yourself…_"

"… I'm… not selfish…" Mephiles growled back, biting down on his tongue to focus on something other than the slash in the face. "… If this way is going to help my friends… then so be it…"

A hand clamped onto his quills and pulled him up off the ground, prompting Mephiles to yelp again, trying to pry Dark's hand off of his head.

"_Pathetic…_"

"Let me go!"

"_Gladly…_" Dark sneered wickedly, and flung Mephiles as far as he could. Mephiles cried out in fright as he hit the ground on his side and bounced up, rolling over before skidding to a halt on his back. Mephiles inhaled sharply several times, staring up into the dark void above him, his body feeling sore. "_Give up…_"

Mephiles shook his head slowly, and a Dark Spike barely missed him.

"Are you trying to _kill_ me?!" Mephiles squeaked out in a moment of surprise, lifting his head to stare at Dark in both shock and fright.

Dark was standing with his fists clenched tightly, his eyes wide, panting through is teeth. His quills and fur stood on end so much, he looked like he might have been hit by a bolt of lightning. He lowered his eyebrows to grimace at Mephiles, his eyes glowing red.

"_When I'm done with you, you'll _wish _that I had!!_" He screamed in frustration, bringing his hands up and forming a Dark Spike in either one. His voice shifted into an eerily calm whisper, just loud enough for Mephiles to hear. "_There are eight vital places in the body… throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, jugular vein, subclavian artery, kidneys and the heart… I just have to sure to miss those…_"

He twisted his scowl into a wickedly depraved grin, and took a step forward.

"_There's still hundreds of other targets that won't kill you..._"

Mephiles could have sworn he felt his heart actually stop.

* * *

Ooh... this was pretty dark...

Poor Mephiles... but at least he's hanging in there. Let's hope he can get out of this one... Actually... ony me and a few select people know the true outcome right now ;D

See you soon.


	17. Nobody's Listening

Okay... so last chapter had Meph in some serious crapola. The poor little guy was in deep...

Hopefully this chapter will be just as good. Oh, and I see you all like the angst... that's good... I have fun writting it :D

* * *

Shadow passed the time by listening to his MP3 player. He pulled up the "Linkin Park" playlist, not really paying attention to which song he had on, setting it to shuffle after his choice. He tuned his ears out as he plunged himself into his thoughts.

He had never seen Mephiles give him such a look since about a couple of hours before they had been fused together. About the time Shadow chose to push away all the lies Mephiles was sending at him to get him to come to the dark side… actually, if Shadow understood that right, it was Dark at the time, Mephiles simply being used and manipulated in the same way Dark had tried to Shadow.

Mephiles was obviously not right earlier and something about Shadow being there set off such hatred, that there was no way that was Mephiles'.

It had to have been Dark. No doubt. He only tried to attack Shadow, as if he didn't notice that Rouge was there watching in horror…

But, he didn't _talk_ like Dark. His manner of speaking was about as much as Mephiles' as Rae bared an uncanny resemblance to Tails…

Dark must have tricked him or something. He wouldn't put it past the little demon to do something like that.

He tuned into what song was playing, and he froze as he caught the tail end of it.

_Tried to give you warning  
But everyone ignores me  
(Told you everything loud and clear)  
But nobody's listening  
Called to you so clearly  
But you don't want to hear me  
(Told you everything loud and clear)  
But nobody's listening  
_

It never occurred to him before now how this track's chorus sounded like it had a mocking sing-songishly air to it. Bringing his hand to the ear buds, the final piece started up, and he froze again.

_I got a heart full of pain  
Head full of stress  
(nobody's listening)  
Hand full of anger  
Held in my chest  
(nobody's listening)  
Uphill struggle  
Blood, sweat, and tears  
(nobody's listening)  
Nothing to gain,  
Everything to fear  
(nobody's listening)_

He frowned and yanked the ear buds out before the song finished, throwing the player on the bed in distaste, panting at it in anger.

"_I get it already!_" He growled at no one in particular, turning away in a huff. "Okay? I get it! I screwed up! He tried to tell me, and I didn't listen! Just leave me alone!"

He cursed loudly, and kicked the chair over, dropping to the ground to sit there instead. Why did it always seem that an MP3 player chose to play the most appropriate track when you left it to its own devices? That just wasn't fair!

And… now, he had been yelling at an MP3 player…

_Urgh… how childish…_ He told himself, shaking his head.

Suddenly, his ears perked up as he heard a scream of fright, no doubt from Mephiles.

Screw staying out of sight! Mephiles needed help! What was he doing hiding?!

He stood up quickly, and with the snap of his fingers, he warped out of the room and into the living room with help of Chaos Control.

Rouge was trying to hold Mephiles down on the couch, the shade flailing and trying to pull away to escape or something like that. He was screaming at the top of his voice, shaking his head hysterically, quills and fur on end.

"_No!_ You don't _understand!_ He's trying to _kill_ him! Let me _go!_ _Please_ let me go before Shadow comes in! I have to get away from him before Dark tries something again!"

"What happened?"

Mephiles shrieked at the sound of Shadow's voice, trying more frantically to pull loose, squeezing his eyes shut so he didn't see him.

"Let me go! Let me go before he tries again! I _beg _of you, _let me go!!_"

Out of some unexplained instinct, he snapped at whoever held him down, trying to clamp his teeth down on something. Rouge pulled her hands away before the shade's fangs struck down on her.

Mephiles opened his eyes quickly and looked up at the bat. Immediately, they shot wide and he screeched in horror when he realized who he almost bit, trembling in fear.

"I'M SORRY! _I'M SORRY!_" He howled, shaking his head frantically, quickly getting to his feet and backing away in fright. "I didn't… it wasn't… it was Dark! I had no control over… he-he made me… I'm not myself… oh,_ God!_" He clamped his hands to his head and shook it forcefully, as if he had been knocked in the back of it. "_AUGH!_"

His eyes widened at the sight of Shadow and he shook his head with even more effort.

"I didn't mean _any_ of that, Shadow!" He yelped, quickly dropping his gaze to the floor. "I wasn't even aware I was _doing_ that… Dark did something, but that wasn't _me!_ Don't hate me, _please_ don't hate me!"

"I don't hate you… I figured that that wasn't you, so I'm not holding this against you… please try to calm down, you're going to give yourself another panic attack…" Shadow added, knowing that this was getting to a borderline one, and if it progressed to one at all, Mephiles would be in possibly more trouble than what he can be helped out of. "Now wouldn't be a good time for one… actually, no time would be a good one…"

Mephiles would have agreed, if he wasn't already in such a manic state of mind that he wasn't able to focus rationally. His eyes darted left and right, looking for a way out.

"You have no idea what he just _did_ to me, Shadow…" Mephiles said faintly, panting from an onset of exhaustion he was trying to fight off. "There are over hundreds of non vital places to get hit… each one just as painful as if he had tried to kill me… every single possible place… just because I haven't given in… _over hundreds…_ I thought I _would_ die! I want it all to stop! I just want it to _end!_"

Tears standing around the edges of his eyes, he turned his attention behind him quickly and saw that the door was opened.

_Perfect…_

In a moment that seemed to slow down, he risked a glance back at Shadow and Rouge, and turned tail and bolted toward the door in a panic. Shadow widened his eyes and took off after him, trying to catch him by the wrist to stop him. His fingers wrapped around Mephiles' wrist, and for a moment, Mephiles felt his heart sink, his plan of escape obviously not working.

But then, Shadow tripped, and his hand let go of Mephiles' wrist. After a moment of total disbelief, Mephiles shook his head and took off down the street, trying to get as far away from them as he could.

Shadow looked up from the ground, clenching his teeth in annoyance.

"Two things… _what_ did I trip on, and _why_ was the door open?" He growled lowly, obviously a little ticked off.

"Uhm… You tripped on that box, and the door was opened because the mailman had just dropped it off…"

"Box? Who would send..?" He trailed off as laid his eyes on the sender's address. He frowned and barked out: "_FAKER?!_"

It was at that moment, Shadow remembered why he tried to avoid Sonic at all costs recently: He was just downright annoying…

And this was not the time for that…

"I'm not even interested in what's in that thing right now! We need to find Mephiles again!" Shadow stood up, kicked the box out of the way and stormed out the door. He paused at the walkway. "Coming?"

"Of course…" Rouge quickly grabbed the keys and made sure to lock the door before they split up to look for him at opposite ends of the neighborhood first.

* * *

Mephiles seemed to find himself in the little grassy area more often recently. Without thinking, he had fled to this area before he even realized he was even going there. Why?

Mephiles took in the sight of the city just a ways away and sighed.

Maybe it was because it was close, but also far away. It was also a nice little place to be at… very nice…

He winced when he finally had time to check and see if he had carried any of his injuries from his mind over to out of it. So far, the worst places had dulled to a nagging ache, and the not so bad injuries had not carried over at all.

However, he was still in pain, one way or another.

His stomach was still hurting from the kick from Shadow earlier, though at first, he couldn't even guess why it was like that. But, however, much to Mephiles' displeasure, Dark was "kind" enough to run the events through his mind.

When it had been over, Mephiles was on his back, one hand pressed to his side, and the other gripping the top a large, half-buried rock. He shifted his gaze up at the leaves hanging over him, before closing his eyes and sighing disheartenedly.

"… When is this going to stop..?"

'_When you give up… or die… or, heck… even if you find a way to split us…_'

"You're crazy if you think _any_ of these are going to happen... wait… spilt us?" Mephiles' curiosity got the better of him, and he pushed himself up off the ground and leaned his weight into the tree as he stayed on the ground. "What do you mean?"

'_Like how you and Shadow were split… I'd say a Chaos Emerald should-_'

"Oh, I see what this is about!" Mephiles sudden broke free of his interest and forced himself back to reality. "You want me to get you an Emerald! _Forget it!_"

Dark sighed.

'_Again… you are stubborn…_'

"But I'm not stupid! I know that you want that Emerald because you want to enhance your power or something close to that!"

'_But… what if I wasn't? Hmm?_'

"I don't see why you would…"

'_What if I was beginning to tire of this? I'm obviously not going to win, and you're obviously not going to give in. And Emerald should be the easy way out…_'

"_That's_ what you want me to think!" Mephiles shook his head, frowning. "How dumb do you think I am?"

Dark was tempted to give a snide remark about that, but sighed again, thinking better of it.

'_Honestly… I'm offering help here, and you refuse it. Stub-born…_'He said, quite boredly.

"Why should I accept help from _you?_"

'_Simple… What other plans to you have to stop this?_'

…

…

…

"I hate you… _so _much…" Mephiles seethed, digging his claws into the dirt and leaving deep scratches in it. He wiped the dirt off of his fingers onto the grass, not really caring if his claws were clean or not right now.

'_No plans, eh?_'

"…"

'_I'll take that as a "yes"…'_

* * *

"Why does he keep running?" Rae asked, having just run into Shadow while she brought Jak outside to walk around. Shadow had told her what happened where she noticed the slightly distressed aura around him. "I mean, running's not gonna fix anything… it's not going to go aw-"

"I'm sorry, Rae, but could you save the philosophical junk for later? We need to find him again…"

Rae blinked, a little taken aback, but she quickly recovered.

"Need help?"

"If you could, that'd help…"

"Kay… I'll ask Mom…"

* * *

Dark was starting to twist something in Mephiles head, but Mephiles didn't detect anything about it. He listened intently to the demon's suggestion, trying to pull out anything that would give away the true intentions of the demon's actions.

Nothing…

Weird…

"If you're trying to trick me… I can't sense anything about it…" Mephiles said slowly, frowning again.

'_Like I said… I'm beginning to tire of this… neither of us are going to win because we are evenly matched… so the only way it seems for you is to spilt us…_'

"How do I know you're not going to turn on me after we do?"

'_You're just gonna have to trust me…_'

"Somehow… I find that very hard…"

'_What other choice do you have?_'

…

…

…

…

"Where do I find one?"

Dark laughed in such a way, Mephiles felt his fur bristle again.

What did he just agree to? This wasn't going to end well at all… He could tell…

* * *

Oh my... what _did_ Mephiles just do? Damn you Dark! You messed with his head!

Oh, jeeze... and you have to wait for the next chapter... I guess I'll see you then...


	18. Too Late

Ah boy... this is starting to heat up to a boil!

Hope you like this chapter...

* * *

"I can't believe I agreed to this!" Mephiles exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief. Dark giggled as the case clattered to the floor, surprisingly still intact. Mephiles eyed it with unease, before letting his eyes fall on the Emerald.

'_Of course you did… And, quite frankly… I'm glad you did…_'

"Why?" Mephiles said quickly, turning his head to the side, before he remembered that Dark was in his head, and therefore, he could not see him. He sighed. "Why?" He repeated a little calmer.

'_Like I said… I'm growing tired of this… I want this to end too, and this Emerald will help us out…_'

"I suppose… but, did it have to be the red one?" Mephiles had a trace of whining in his voice. He had somewhat of a fear of the red Emerald. It was the Emerald that not only let Dark resurface a few months ago, but it was also the one that nearly drove Mephiles insane just by looking at it. Something about that particular Emerald reacted badly with the poor shady hedgehog. He would shiver with fright when he even thought about it.

Suddenly, he felt his hands freeze with a cold chill, and he rubbed them together quickly to heat them up again.

He had worked his way into the museum by dissolving into mist and evading the outdoor security. He had found out that the red Emerald had come into the museum's possession not long after he had used it as part of what he needed to do to resurrect Rae's soul. Apparently, Shadow and Rouge had noticed his reaction to the Emerald (which ended with him in a coma for a month), and donated it to the museum for both its and Mephiles' safety.

One look at it caused his entire body to feel like it was freezing. His teeth chattered and he took a step back, rubbing his hands up and down his arms to ward off his sudden chill.

'_Oh, come on! Don't tell me you're scared! You are so weak!_'

"Hey, in my position, think about it: I'm about to use the very Emerald that reawakened you, and nearly drove me to insanity, which also sent me into a coma, and reacts badly to me for some reason, to split an inner demon from me, who I can't even trust him, so I don't know if you're gonna attack me after it happens!" Mephiles said this all in one breath, gasping deeply after he finished and blinked. "I'm not sure how I ended up saying 'yes' to this…"

'_You got me…_' Dark snickered. Obviously, he was quite amused by this. Which was something that made Mephiles very uneasy.

"On second thought… I think I can live with a demon in my head." He said quickly, and turned around to leave.

'_No, you don't!_'

Mephiles stopped with his foot in the air and cringed.

'_You are getting that Emerald!_'

"N-now that you say it like that… I'm _certain_ that this is just a trick…"

Dark sighed.

'_I see you wanna take this the hard way… no matter… it's easy enough to overcome…_'

Mephiles' eyes widened in realization.

"Oh… _no…_" He moaned.

'_Oh, yes…_'

Mephiles nearly choked on his own breath as he gasped in horror.

* * *

"I thought he'd be here!" Shadow exclaimed in disbelief as well. The grassy area outside of Westopolis was empty, no sight of the crystalline hedgehog they were looking for anywhere. "He came here last time!"

"Maybe he was, but he left…" Rae suggested.

"Why would he leave? He hides out here now…"

"I dunno… could be for any reason, I guess…"

"Why?"

"I dunno… Your guess is as good as mine… maybe better… you've known him longer…"

"Like I know exactly what goes on his head…" Shadow tossed his hands up in the air out of frustration. This whole thing just seemed to drag out every time they thought the end of it was near, and to be honest… it was about as annoying as Faker sending a box of who knows what at the wrong time.

"At least_ try…_ You wanna find him or not?" Rae frowned, tapping her foot as Jak circled between the two.

Shadow sighed. He hoped that Rouge would show up soon to let her know the course of action changed…

Maybe they should take a leaf out of Rae's book and carry a cell phone around like she does. Might do them some good with what they have to deal with…

"Just think about what he might be doing now…"

"Well, I th-"

"Try thinking it in your head… you can do that faster than if you talked it out…" Rae cut across him quickly. "Then you can tell me what you think you have…"

"You're unusually well thought out today…"

"Am I? I didn't notice…"

* * *

Mephiles was definitely in it deep now. And he knew it.

"Oh, _why_ did I agree to this?!" He was pulling at his ears, which now seemed to be an impulse to distress. He pulled them down far enough to obscure his hearing before he let go, his ears springing back into place.

Dark snickered.

'_I'll let you in on a little secret…_' He said softly, though Mephiles heard every word of it. '_… I twisted something in your head to make you say "yes"…_'

There was about a second or two of silence before Mephiles screeched out in total apprehension.

"_I KNEW IT! I _KNEW_ I COULDN'T TRUST YOU!_" He shook his head frantically, digging his claws in behind his ears. "_YOU'RE JUST A LITTLE MONSTER! LEAVE ME _ALONE!!"

He spun around, fully intent on bolting out of the museum, maybe even setting off the security system in the process, let himself get caught and get taken away as far away from the Emerald as humanly (hedgehogly?) possible. Anywhere would be better than here…

But Dark wasn't going to let him.

Mephiles' body refused to move as it locked up suddenly. He whimpered in fright as Dark continued to laugh wickedly, the demon's voice echoing in his head.

'_You think you can just walk out off here without getting that Emerald?_'

"Y-you lied… you said it would split us apart…" Mephiles whispered, clenching his teeth together. At least he was still able to talk… that was good… he hoped…

'_It _can_ split us… That part I _didn't_ lie about… And I plan to split us…_'

"I'm not gonna do it now!" Mephiles tried to drown him out by overriding Dark's voice. "No! No! I won't do it! You can't _make_ me!"

Oops…

'_Actually… yes, I can…_'

Mephiles' eyes shot wide at his mistake. If he had ever cussed in his life… this would be the first time he had ever let anyone hear it. A foul profanity slipped from his tongue with little effort to keep it back, which simply made Dark laugh even harder.

* * *

_He's got another mind living in his head… _Shadow ran through his head, trying to come up with the possible place Mephiles was at. _I had that happen too… when he was in mine… two brains, one head… one body to control… Dark must have a goal… if Meph's not giving in, he's gonna try to make him give in… what's something that renders Meph helpless? Besides Dark being in his head… or the fear of hurting someone… or… the overall fear of his nightmares… or water… or hospitals… or… _jeeze_… Meph's afraid of a _lot_ of things! How come I haven't noticed this before? No wonder he's got problems… Wait… there's also the red Emerald… I saw his reaction when he saw _that_ one… he looked downright scared… I wonder why-Wait a minute… The Emerald! Dark might try to trick him to get it to split them apart! It worked (kinda) with us! And that's about the easiest one to get right now! Why the heck did we give it to the museum?! That didn't keep it safe last time!_

"I think I figured it out!" Shadow said out loud, causing the fox to jump. He had been silent for a while, so she hadn't expected it. "I need to get to the red Emerald before something happens!"

"Should I just…" Rae trailed off, wondering exactly she should do.

"Stay here and relay that to Rouge."

"But, should you go alone? I mean-"

"Rae… I stopped an entire invasion of aliens on my own. I'm a GUN official _and_ I'm a genetically enhanced hedgehog. I think I can handle this on my own! Just stay here to tell Rouge!"

And with that, Shadow disappeared in a flash of blue, him having Chaos Controlled out of there. Rae sighed and dropped to the ground to sit under the tree, Jak jumping into her lap.

"He looks more like a tenrec to me…" Rae murmured, shaking her head. Jak "arfed" in agreement.

* * *

Crystal claws were hovering over the Emerald. Mephiles twitched his fingers to try to pull his hand away, but he couldn't make it do anything. Dark had taken full control.

"Please, don't make me touch that thing…" Mephiles pleaded. "Please…"

'_Begging, are we?_' Dark sighed. '_Weak…_'

"I'm not weak!"

'_Oh, really? Who's the one pleading here? You. Who's the one in control? Me. You can't seem to fight me off…_'

"Stop it! Leave me alone! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!"

'_You are such a little kid… repetitive in your pleas, whining all the time, not to mention your ideas of how good's going to win all the time… how stupid… your time with Shadow and those others have made you weaker by the day… You even have nightmares! Honestly!_'

"Shut up! Go away! Leave me alone! Stop it!"

'_I suppose you think Shadow's going to save you again? Those other times were just luck… he doesn't even know you're here…_'

"_MEPHILES!_"

_Right on time…_ Mephiles sighed to himself and Dark, briefly letting a smile crawl onto his face. Dark growled in frustration.

'_Do you have a tracking device on you or something?! _How_ does he keep finding you?!_'

"Shadow! He's trying to make me grab the Emerald! Stop me, or something!"

"Like what?!"

"You're the smart one! _Figure it out!_"

Shadow took no time in finding a way. He grabbed Mephiles' wrist with both hands and pulled it back.

Dark, however, wasn't going to let that happen with out a fight.

The hand inched forward, and both Shadow and Mephiles' eyes widened. Mephiles yelped and Shadow pulled back harder.

"He says you just making this harder…" Mephiles relayed to Shadow, though he felt like he really didn't need to say that at all.

"Tell him I say 'Good'!"

"I don't need to; he hears what I hear…"

"Okay… You're not getting this Emerald, Dark!"

"He says… aw, you get the idea! Just stop him!"

Mephiles' hand pulled forward, and he screamed.

"No! No! No! No! No! No! Shadow! What are you doing?! Stop him!"

"I'm trying! You wanna try this?!

"No!"

The hand inched a little more, and Mephiles howled in fright. He tried to help Shadow pull it back, but, as stated before, Mephiles had no control at the moment. So it did nothing to help.

"Stop him! Stop me! _Do_ something!"

His hand finally pulled forward one last time, and his fingers closed around the red power gem.

His eyes went as far as they could go, "pupils" shrinking to where they nearly disappeared. Ears flipping down, he shrieked loudly enough to make Shadow try to fold his ears over to block out the sound. Both hedgehogs watched in horror as red Chaos energy radiated from the Emerald, wrapping around Mephiles' arm and snaking its way up slowly. It spread around the crystal hedgehog's body, making him vaguely resemble a red glow-in-the-dark toy, his entire body shaking from fear.

And finally, for the first time since he had become ultimately determined to not let Dark win… he gave in and let himself break down and cry.

Screaming in anguish, fear, and agony (from the Emerald's reaction to him), tears fell down his face as the glow intensified and finally flashed bright, sending him and Shadow back into the wall as a surge of Chaos power burst from the Emerald.

Shadow coughed from both the wall and Mephiles' body hitting him from both front and back, taking a deep breath to stop the coughing.

Mephiles stirred and pulled himself off of Shadow before opening his eyes and blinking a few times to see. His eyes scanned the room quickly, looking for something.

His eyes rested on something, and Shadow saw his muzzle turn completely white as he nearly collapsed on his back, he body shaking so badly, he could barely sit up. He whimpered and moaned.

Shadow followed his line of vision and gasped when he rested his sight on what Mephiles had.

Dark was standing at the Emerald's case, balancing the Emerald on the back of his hand before tossing it in the air and catching it, a wicked smirk on his face as he stared at the red power gem. He lifted his gaze to both hedgehogs, his grin getting bigger as he shifted it to Shadow.

"_Hey, boys… miss me?_"

Mephiles screeched in terror.

* * *

Whoa, dang! Dark's finally gotten loose!

What going to happen next?

You'll just have to wait.


	19. Run For It

Okay... so, let's recap quickly: Dark's free! thsi is not gonna be pretty...

On another note... Mephiles and Shadow get to team up... so this might help make up for the bad situtation :D

Hope you like this chapter :D

* * *

Nothing could seem to halt Mephiles' shrieks of terror. He shook his head and screamed out, howling in anguish and desolate fear. Shadow grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him roughly to snap him out of it.

"Mephiles! Now is _not_ the time!"

"You let him win! You let him _win!_" He screamed, not at all fazed by the shaking. "We're doomed! We're gonna die! It's over! He won!"

Deciding that Mephiles was too far distraught to allow him to try to partly fend for himself, Shadow pulled him onto his back and hurried out of the museum just as Dark send a Dark Spike their way, Mephiles screeching as it grazed his crystal quill tips. He was now clawing at Shadow frantically, obvious out of his head with fright.

"MEPHILES! _Calm down!_" Shadow yelled as the crystal claws dug into his quills.

"This wasn't supposed to happen! He lied to me! He _lied_ to me! And I fell for it! This is all my fault! _WHAT HAVE I DONE!?_"

Shadow caught him by the hands and pulled them together to hold them by the wrists.

"It's a little hard to run with you freaking out like this…"

"Why don't you Chaos Control then?!"

"I already did… to find you… I can't keep doing them, or else I'll exhaust myself… do you want that to happen?"

"No! No!" Mephiles shook his head hysterically.

Both hedgehogs yelped when two Dark Spikes tried to hit Shadow's feet. The hybrid hedgehog tried to sidestep, but tripped, sending both him and Mephiles rolling down the museum's outside steps. Mephiles had enough sense to let go and roll into a ball, Shadow following suit.

Mephiles recovered quickly, grabbing Shadow's wrist and pulling him up, not pausing between that and unrolling.

"Hurry! Get up! If he catches either of us, it's _over!_"

"He can-?"

"He's free, so he can kill me too now! _Run!_"

"So-"

"Do you wanna find out for yourself?! _RUN!_" Mephiles screamed. Several Dark Spikes just missed him, burying themselves in the ground at his feet as he jumped back. "He's just toying with us right now!" he added quickly.

"Where do we run?!"

"_Anywhere!_ Preferably away from everyone, so no one gets hurt!" Mephiles turned tail and just ran, Shadow taking off after him. He was a little surprised at what Mephiles had said, but then again, he had to agree with him… it was better if no one else was needlessly hurt from this.

When Mephiles looked behind him, Shadow glimpsed the absolute fear in his expression, though Mephiles only let it stay for a brief moment before shaking his head roughly and setting some form of determination in it instead as he looked ahead again.

It wasn't long before Shadow realized that they were heading for the bridge.

"How is this going to help?"

"I was hoping we could at least try to trick him or something, and maybe get him to drown… he can't swim and it worked last time…"

"Stuff doesn't always work the same way, y'know…"

"Got a better idea?"

"Not really…"

"It's my plan then…" Mephiles halted under the very tree they had Chaos Controlled under when Mephiles tried to drown himself, and leaned against it to catch his breath.

"_Why_ did I choose to be a hedgehog?" He mused to himself offhandishly, taking a deep breath. "I just can't see how you stand all this running…"

"It's a gift…"

Mephiles was about to respond to that, before something round collided with him and send him a ways down, cratering into the ground. Dark unrolled from his Spin Dash and stood up, snickering under his breath.

"_Oh, this is just a field day! I get to choose who to take out first. But the million dollar question is: Which one? Shadow, the one I ultimately despise? Or Mephy Boy, my weaker half?_"

He was laughing so hard, that Shadow was surprised that he wasn't gasping for air.

"_Or, I could challenge myself, and do both at once!_" He turned his slit-pupil poison green eyes on the hybrid hedgehog, his grin growing wider.

Shadow took as step back, taking no effort to keep his expression stoic, something he was very much used to. He risked a glance behind Dark and say that Mephiles was struggling to his feet, the impact obviously having winded him greatly.

Almost collapsing again, he steadied himself and charged at Dark, claws out and purple Chaos energy radiating from his hands.

Dark didn't bother to look behind him, and simply scoffed, sidestepping so that Mephiles stepped in front of him. The crystalline hedgehog's lime eyes widened as an identical crystal hand scruffed him, Mephiles immediately curling up like a kitten as he was yanked back from him run forward, Dark bringing him to where they were eye-to-eye.

Mephiles' ear flipped down and his tail tucked against his body, but he bared his teeth in a display of hostility.

"Put. Me. _Down._"

"_I suppose I could… but that's letting you off easy…_" Dark raised a claw to Mephiles' cheek, curling it when it touched the fur and flesh. Mephiles clench his teeth to together, knowing what was going to happen next. "_I see your injuries you got in our mind have disappeared… no matter… we'll start over, but this time… I can use those eight I couldn't hit… Oh, don't worry…_" Dark cooed in a mock comforting voice when Mephiles' muzzle paled, an ill expression gracing his face as Dark dragged his claw down it slowly, a trail of blood draining from the cut slowly as Dark pulled his hand back and licked the blood off. "_We can go slowly if you'd like…_"

A Chaos Spear burnt Dark's hand, causing him to drop Mephiles, who landed on his back. Staring up, he slowly regained himself, and rolled over to pull himself away. He brought his hand up to his face, wincing as he pressed it to the cut. He pulled his hand back, and his eyes widened at the sight of the line of blood on his palm. He groaned and closed his eyes to block it from his vision… the sight of blood always made him dizzy, especially if it was his own.

Dark growled as he held his hand, glaring and baring his teeth at the thrower. Shadow.

"_Why do you keep saving him, when he brings you nothing but trouble? You're about as stupid as he is!_"

Shadow curled his fingers and formed another Chaos Spear in his hand, taking a deep breath and sighing.

"Mephiles isn't the problem… he tries to get away from you, but you won't leave him alone. _You _are the one who brings trouble, not him…"

"_But that doesn't tell me why you keep coming to his rescue!_"

"I could tell you…" Shadow couldn't help but smirk at him. "But I don't think you'll get it… at all…"

"Don't_ underestimate me, hedgehog!_" Dark's already low patience was beginning to wear even thinner.

"Naw, I don't think you can get it all…" Shadow grinned and flung the Chaos Spear at him, only to see it get slapped aside. "Ah, I see now… you're one of those tough ones… ah-kay… this is gonna be tough…"

Mephiles took a deep breath, telling himself that now was not the time to be getting dizzy over a little cut. He got to his feet again, stumbling over them a few times before he was steady. A few more deep breaths and he frowned before he charged at Dark again, trying the same tactics.

Shadow saw the demon's ear twitch before he turned around swiftly, catching Mephiles by the wrist, and bringing his knee up to hit the crystal hedgehog in the stomach.

Mephiles eyes widened, and he collapsed with only a sharp gasp of pain.

As he shook at the demon's feet, Dark turned his attention to Shadow, who seemed very concerned for Mephiles.

"_A little slow this time, eh, Shadow?_" Dark lifted his foot and kicked Mephiles aside. "_I think I'll just get rid of you first, then take care of the little weakling you seem to keep saving…_"

Shadow paused for a moment, and frowned before saying: "Meph's not weak…"

"_What?_"

"He's not… he's fought you off for a very long time… if he's as weak as you say… he shouldn't have been able to do that… he's not weak…"

"_But he failed… he gave in and grabbed the Emerald…_"

"Only because you made him…" Shadow countered. "I saw him trying to fight back… if he lasted for this long… he's not weak… _You _are because you're scared of what'll happen if _he_ wins…"

There was a pause, Dark obviously at a loss for words. There was another pause for him to blink before he growled, alighting his hands with blood red Chaos energy.

"_I'll have your tongue for that!_" He hissed, bright eyes fixed on Shadow.

"If you can _catch_ me!"

_Shadow, _what _are you doing!? _Mephiles thought, a little too winded to say it out loud. _You're just going to make him madder! _

With a soft moan, Mephiles pulled himself to his feet, only to stumble back, his fall broken by a tree's trunk.

_Great… he hit me so hard I can barely stand… this is gonna be a while… _

If Mephiles was ever proud of one thing about his genetics, it was that he was able to recover at least twice as fast from getting hit… however, sometimes, it just didn't seem fast enough… and this was one of those times.

While he tried to catch his breath, he watched with worry as Shadow continued to taunt Dark, the demon steadily getting more ticked off as the time passed. It would seem Shadow was taking a leaf out of Sonic's book and boasting about how he couldn't get hit.

A Dark Spike that singed his quills made him switch tactics quickly.

"Do you have any other attacks other than that Dark Spike? I mean, honestly… after a while… it gets old…"

"_Mephy Boy knows first hand that these claws can sting… and that's only one… you want to find out how all five feel?_" Dark purred dangerously, a shadow of a smirk coming into view.

"No!"

That had been Mephiles. Dark turned around swiftly, frowning when he saw that Mephiles had used the tree to steady himself, having to lean against it. Breathing a little quickly, Mephiles narrowed his eyes, looking about as angry as the time he had to face Shadow head on when the two had been personality switched, if not more.

"You leave… him alone… right now…" Mephiles said between pants, still obviously having not completely caught his breath.

"_And what are you going to do about it? I see you can barely stand at all..._"

"I dunno… but I'm willing to try anything…"

"_I see…_" Dark was smirking fully now. In one quick movement, he melted into a puddle of shadows and shot off after Mephiles, who could only widen his eyes in shock. Unable to move well, he could only moan in fear as the puddle shifted into something ropelike, wrapping its way up and around him.

Suddenly, Mephiles felt it tighten, constricting like a long snake, trying to suffocate him.

Seeing the problem, Shadow shouted: "Meph! Melt in to a puddle too!"

Mephiles shook his head slowly, holding back a scream of pain as both Dark squeezed tighter, and Shadow looked at him bewildered.

"… I… can't…" The crystal hedgehog tried to keep from exhaling. "… If I do… he'll just… mix us both up… and we'll be… right back… where we started… Sh-shadow… _h-help…_" He added pleadingly as he fell over, having lost the strength to stand.

Unable to charge up on Chaos power, having already Chaos Controlled not too long ago, Shadow had to rely on his other method of attack: good old fashioned, hand-to-hand, brute force.

A skates' length away, he made his way over and brought the side of his hand down on the end of the snakelike shadow. He had obviously hit the "head", because Dark let go, and slowly shifted back to his normal form, giving Shadow time to check on Mephiles, who was moving very little.

"Mephiles! Are you okay?" He said, a little worried at how slow of a reaction he was getting.

Mephiles lifted his head, taking a deep, slow breath as he did, eyes drooping a little. "Did we win..?"

"Not yet…"

"Then, no… I'm not okay…" Mephiles tried to pull himself up again, but fell back, blinking blankly before frowning at himself.

"You're gonna keep at it?" Shadow offered him a hand.

"… Till that monster's gone… yes…" Mephiles took a hold and with Shadow help, made it to his feet. Taking another deep breath, he crossed his arms and said: "He's here because of me… so I'm going to get rid of him… even if it takes all night…"

"Sounds like a plan…" Shadow smirked at him.

"I get it from you…" Mephiles returned the grin.

Both hedgehogs nodded and braced themselves for Dark's next move.

* * *

I dunno about you, but I just had this last part pictured a little epicly. I mean, Mephiles and Shadow officially teaming up, side by side to go up against Dark... I hope I can write the next chapter up to expectations.

Also, let's hope Rae and Rouge find them... because something tells me that they're gonna need some help... though I don't really think Rae can do much... after all, she's just a kid with a dog... an old, Cujo-complex dog...

See ya next time :D


	20. The Beginning Of It All

Okay... this is the beginning of the fight...

Hope you like this chapter...

* * *

Mephiles took a deep breath and clenched his hands in front of him, muttering under his breath as he did.

"What are you doing?" Shadow immediately perked an ear, trying to catch what he said.

"Just trying to motivate myself… to tell you the truth, this is actually the first fight I've been in without Dark… first time going against him on my own anyway…"

"You're not going at it alone…" Shadow shook his head as he readied for the fight as well. "I'm fighting with you…"

"First time for that too…" Mephiles blinked. "This is… like a turning point, right? For me? I mean… I'm going to try to beat down my dark side with the help of my best friend… No clue if I'm going to get out of it okay… but doing this because I feel like I have to, and there's a lot weighted on this…"

"Such as..?"

"Well… _lives _for one thing… many innocent lives… if I don't do this… what's gonna end up happening to everybody?"

"I see your point…"

"So, really… I guess it's up to me…"

"But… you'll need help… right?"

"I'm sure I do…" Mephiles managed to smile. "I look forward to it being from you…"

"Won't let you down…" Shadow returned the gesture.

Mephiles nodded and held one hand slightly above the other, curling and twitching his fingers until he formed an orb. Small… but at least it _was_ one. He sighed.

"This is gonna take more time than I thought… I think I'm still recovering from that blow to the stomach… that didn't form as fast as it normally does…"

"Got another plan?"

"Well… we could try it your way, and not get hit…"

"That way being..?"

"Close range… like how you just got him off of me… I wanna see if I can do that too…"

"I don't think now is the time to find out…"

"But isn't the most stressful moments when one finds out their capabilities?" Mephiles inquired. "I've been too much of a coward recently… I wanna make up for that… I wanna see what I can really do… without Dark's help at all…"

"But-"

"Please… this is important to me… I _need_ to know if I'm really what he says I am… or if I'm what _you_ say I am… Because… honestly… I don't really know…"

As Shadow nodded after some hesitation, Dark was formed back into his rightful shape. Eyes bright and livid, he turned his full attention on Shadow.

"_You just don't know when to leave him alone… do you?_"

"I could say the same about you."

Dark simply growled under his breath.

Mephiles shifted his attention upward, staring at the sky. It had darkened a little when grey clouds came in. Not dark grey, so at least there wasn't going to be a storm. That was good. But still… if it did start raining, it would be light rain at most… and either way… Mephiles disliked rain.

_Great… it's like today's working against me… _He thought grimly.

On the plus side… at least all Chaos wasn't breaking loose. If that ever _really_ happened… Mephiles wasn't sure.

Still he had to bear with it, and continue on, because many things were weighted on him now. True… he was not to go at this alone, with help from Shadow at least… but you boil it down, and it was all up to him, because Dark was the evil reflection of him, and therefore, it would have to be one or the other in the end.

He didn't know what was going to happen or how this was to end… but he was going to try and bend it to his favor.

If he could think of any song lyrics for him to at least run on… he came up dry.

"Shadow! Let's just do this! I want to get rid of him now!"

Shadow nodded.

"On your word…"

"Mine?"

"Well… you're leading… right?"

Dark was growing impatient. Forming another Dark Spike in his hand, he flung at Mephiles, who just barely avoided it when a twitch of his ears caught it coming.

"_Stop talking and just fight!_" Dark hissed, forming another Dark Spike in his hands.

Mephiles clenched his teeth and nodded, jumping back and taking off to the right as Shadow took the left.

"Shadow! Parry his Dark Spikes with Chaos Spears and I'll come from behind!"

"_See, that's how you're stupid, Mephy Boy!_" Dark dodged Shadow's attack and spin around to unleash a barrage of Dark Spikes at his good counterpart. "_You completely let me know what you planned to do… You should never let the enemy know where you plan to strike!_"

"Are you giving me a lesson in _fighting?!_" Mephiles barked, throwing up a shield with a sweep of his hands out of impulse. _Whoa… never knew I could do that… I just flinched… what else can I do?_

"_Why not? I'm gonna kill you anyway…_" Dark grinned as he sent a glowing clawed swipe at Shadow"_Never too late to learn… even before you die…_"

"_I'm not gonna die!_" Mephiles hissed, his eyes taking on a light violet glow. He curled his claws, ready to slash at Dark. "As long as people want me around, I'm not giving up!"

"_And who would want _you?" Dark sneered, mirroring Mephiles' move, his glow a deep, dark purple. "_Who are you fighting for, besides just you?_"

"A lot of people! Rouge, Rae, Jak, my Chaos… and-"

"Me." Shadow cut across him to help Mephiles make his point.

"Exactly… See, I, unlike you, have people who care…" Mephiles smirked, glad to find something that he and Dark were totally different in. "No one wants you around… you do nothing but cause trouble and hurt me… And that's why I'm finally standing up to you…"

"_I see…_" Dark mused to himself before lunging forward, Mephiles having not expected this. The force of it knock the two doubles on the ground, Mephiles on the bottom, wrists pinned down. "_But you're still too slow…_"

Mephiles growled and lifted his foot to kick him off. Dark didn't seem fazed by this, but he let him go all the same.

"_Don't think you just got yourself free… I'm just toying with you… I don't want this fight to be over till I'm through with tormenting you…_"

Dark got to his feet just as Mephiles tried to get to his own. With a yell, Mephiles jumped at him, only to miss as Dark sidestepped, causing him to hit the ground and bounce a few feet on the grass.

"_Weak, stupid, _and _slow… not a good combination if you want to beat me, Mephy Boy…_"

"_Don't _call me that!" Mephiles got to his feet again, narrowing his eyes in a dangerous stare that Dark pushed aside. "You always call me that, and I don't want you to!"

"_What are you going to do about it? You can't even _hit_ me!_"

Mephiles clenched his hands into fists and charged at Dark, yelling out in both anger and frustration. He swung and nearly landed a hit, but Dark caught his fist a couple inches from his face without even blinking. Mephiles' eyes stopped glowing and widened in surprise, then suddenly widened even more as his wrist was slowly being bent back against the joint.

Out of instinct, he clamped his teeth onto Dark's hand, who only let go out of boredom.

"_I thought you would have at least known _this…_ Our hands and feet are protected by a layer of solid crystal. Our tail and ear tips and even parts of our quills. Nothing can get through to hurt them._"

"Then… what about wrists and ankles? I… you… broke my ankle last time…"

"_The layers are thinner there because it's a place of transition between rock and fur… those are still vulnerable… I thought you knew that when you tried to slash your wrist!_"

"I dunno what I was thinking, because you had driven me out of my right mind!" Mephiles was rubbing his wrist carefully. Dark hadn't broken it, but it felt sore all the same…

Mephiles shot a look at Shadow that told him that his wrist was okay. Shadow nodded smally enough for Mephiles only to catch it.

Mephiles shook his hand in the air for a moment and established that it was fine. Taking a deep breath, he lunged forward, claws out again.

What happened next was so fast, that Mephiles' mind didn't register the pain until a good long pause.

Dark sidestepped again, bringing his leg up and slamming it forcefully into Mephiles' stomach again. Mephiles eyes widened, but he stared blankly as a hand smacked into the back of his head and he was forced to the ground. He was kicked in the side and rolled onto his back, and finally… Dark brought his foot down on Mephiles' ankle with enough force for something to break. In fact, the sound of some bones fracturing was heard, and Dark stepped back with a wicked smirk on his face.

Mephiles continued to stare blankly for a moment, and finally blinked, bringing his hand to the back of his head first. He choked a cough when he finally felt the blow to his stomach, wrapping his arms around it.

Several deep breaths, as he rocked himself slowly, later… his eyes shot wide open and he shrieked in agony as he grabbed his ankle, tears streaming down his face from the immense pain of it. He was rocking more frantically, gasping between cries as he nearly collapsed on his side. Judging from his reaction, it was possibly a worse fracture than last time.

Dark looked at him and clucked his tongue, shaking his head.

"_Weak…_"

* * *

Oh, no! Meph's ankle is busted, and the fight's not even near over! What are they going to do?

I guess you have to wait until next time... :(

See ya then!


	21. Insanity

Okay... so... Meph's hurt... and the fight still goes on.

In this chapter... we learn a bit (or maybe a lot... I dunno... you decide...) of Dark's origins and how that ties to Shadow and Mephiles...

Please... have fun :D

* * *

"You hear that?"

"What?" Rae twitched her ears, then shook her head. "Depends… what did you hear?"

"I heard a scream like Mephiles' in the direction of the park…" Rouge turned her head in that direction and perked her ears forward. Being a bat, she had extraordinary hearing, a very useful skill for a GUN agent. She often kept what she heard to herself unless it was crucial to share it. This seemed like one of those times.

"Naw… I didn't really hear it… my ears are messing up today…" Rae shook her head as Jak sat down and stared in the same direction as Rouge. "But, Shadow said that they'd be at the museum…"

"But it's possible they had to leave…" Rouge reasoned. She frowned. "That sounded like Mephiles was hurt…"

"Ya sure?"

"Positive…"

"Then I guess we go that way…" Rae nodded.

"I dunno if you should come…" Rouge suggested. "I mean… at how things are going… it might be dangerous… and you have Jak to think about…"

"We'll manage…" Rae picked up Jak and pulled her phone out of one of her tails. "The way I see it… I'm half an idiot, because I'm actually half blonde…" She pulled back a few hair tuft strands and Rouge saw a light shading of fair-haired coloring in the middle of the clumps, covered by the black hair. "And idiots don't get killed… so I have half a chance… plus… I've gotten out of many tight spots before without even a bruise…" She let the hair fall back into place and slid her phone open. "Plus… I'm eighteen now… I'm legally not a kid anymore, though I still act like one…" A few taps and several quick button pushes later, she slid it shut and pocketed it back in her tails. "Just had to let Mom know where I'm at…" She added.

"You're eighteen now?"

"Yep, as of June 12th. Spent all of the night before and the early hours at Disney Land with my classmates and friends… it was Grad Nite…"

"It's summer now… so, you've graduated…"

"Yep. I'm a certified High School Graduate. So I'm sure I'm smart enough to help you guys out…" Rae grinned. "After all… I was there during the last time Dark went after Shadow. Fight didn't last long, because Dark fell in the water, and drowned with Mephy… but that means I know about that weakness… and I don't think he noticed me being there…"

"So… you're saying…"

"That I know one way to beat him. I'm sure Shadow and Meph know, too… and now you do… I don't think he'll expect that."

"I see…" Rouge mused. "So, it seems like you know more about things then what you let on, right?"

"Yep… there are things I know that everyone thinks it's still a secret from me. I figure stuff out before I'm told it, too… I just kinda like to play dumb sometimes so people won't bug me… My friends and family know otherwise."

"Anything else I don't know? Like, maybe… do you have a faster way to run? Because if not… you might get left behind…"

"Can only run as fast as I can… but if you do leave me… I'll catch up."

"What about Jak?"

"I'll carry him if I have to. In fact… I will…"

"Okay… let's get going…"

"Ah-kay!"

* * *

Mephiles inhaled sharply, holding his breath as he forced himself to focus on more pressing matters.

For one thing… Dark wasn't going to let up, even if Mephiles' ankle was broken…

But… there was no way he could see that told him just how he was going to keep fighting with a busted ankle.

And, as fast as his healing was… it was nowhere as fast as he needed it to be right now.

In short… he was royally screwed.

But, he still had to try…

Dark's eyes widened in surprise as Mephiles exhaled quickly then held his breath again, letting go of his injury, and bracing his hands to the ground beside. He shifted his weight away from his ankle and slowly pushed up from the ground, yelping under his breath as pain flared up from all places he had been hit.

Bracing one hand to the ground, he kept his other to his side, wincing when he touched a bruised spot.

Unable to stand up completely, he simply glared up at Dark, narrowing his eyes and baring his teeth weakly, trying to ignore the pain as he shivered at Dark's feet.

"If I'm as weak as you say… why are you having a problem keeping me down..?" He breathed.

"_Because you're stubborn…_" Dark lifted his hand and swung it at Mephiles, who took the full force of the smack to the face. He fell back and brought his hands to his face, gritting his teeth. From the sting, he could easily guess that Dark had scratched him with all five claws.

Now that he thought about it, he considered that maybe their claws were either sharp enough to burn… or that there was maybe a small amount of venom in them… whatever the reason… it burned all the same.

"Leave him alone!" Shadow barked. "What did he ever do to you? If you wanna be mad at anyone… be mad at me! I'm the one who sealed you away ten years ago, right?"

"_Ah, but see, Shadow…_" Dark snickered, obviously finding something to be quite ironic. "_For that, I must be sure to thank you before I kill you…_"

"Wait. _Thank_ me? For what?"

"_If you hadn't sealed Mephy Boy, I would have never been forced into existence. Part of the reason I exist is because of you…_"

"You're lying!" Mephiles shook his head, hand still to his face. "You were always there! You took over-"

"_When we were sealed in that Scepter._" Dark finished for him, absolutely enjoying the shocked looks from both hedgehogs. "_When poor Mephy was too traumatized by the combined experience of both what he saw after his creation, and what you, Shadow, did to him… he began losing his grip on reality. Haunted and plagued by these two memories, with 'eternal' darkness all around as a constant reminder… he began falling apart at the mind. _That's_ how I was created…_"

"_Liar!_ You were there the whole time!" Mephiles looked a bit frantic now, as if he was starting to doubt what he knew about it.

"_Had I not taken action… there might have been other 'split sides'… but I was the first and to date, only one who was made. All of his inner hatred, which scared and confused him, formed me before he even knew I was there. I fed off of his fears, paranoia, hatred… _every_thing negative that ran through his mind had a hand in creating me. Before he knew it, I began experimenting with what I could do, and with that… I found one of my favorite skills… warping his mind…_"

Mephiles was silent, unable to come up with a counter for this. Dark saw this and continued, smirking.

"_I twisted his thoughts, bent his memories of his then short life, and tweaked even his personality. I shaped him into the very Mephy that broke from the Scepter. Remember that stare? That was me behind that… The insane edge to his voice? Me… Every bit of that was from me… and he was merely a puppet to all of this. Sure… he was there… but barely… he was vaguely aware of it all… but it was much like a comatose state…_"

Mephiles shifted his gaze downward, eyes wide and shimmering as it started to make sense to him. Something deep within him told him that what he was hearing was the truth. And… he had nothing to contradict that.

"_He only started to regain control about the time we were inside your head. In fact… it was when we were split… You had ended up with me, and he had been pushed into control completely, though he retained all the memories of the whole mess… He simply thought he had been personality flopped with you, and assume the same had happened to you… He was only half right…_"

_It's starting to make sense now… _Mephiles told himself, shaking his head slowly as he took this all in. _I was the good one the whole time! But… if he's right… then… Shadow created him by accident..?_

"_Once put back into our right places, Mephy ended up keeping full control over me without even knowing it. I manage to slip a few times, during his little nightmares… visions really when you boil it down… I was the one who bit your hand… but he forced my back without even knowing it._" Dark grinned wickedly and pulled the red Emerald out of his quills, tossing it from hand to hand without even looking. "_It wasn't till he caught sight of this Emerald that allowed me to make a full resurface. See… Mephy Boy has a weird reaction to certain Emeralds… his reaction to this one is instant insanity. If he stares at it long enough… he begins to lose himself as the Emerald's energy drives him mad… But… for some reason, he can't touch this one without feeling pain… as you saw earlier… I blame it on our Chaos Energy… it's too unstable really, due to the lab experiments… But, as I'm simply… or at least was… an extension of him… I seem to have no problem touching this…_

"_However… because of his tendency to lose control when he loses himself… It concerns me overall… During those times… I'm not able to do anything, and it's almost like another mind takes over… but it read out as him… so that was him during that little feral attack a few days ago… Which means that there's more to him then I give him credit for…_"

"Why are you telling _me_ this?" Shadow raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Dark stared for a moment, and then laughed harshly, forming a large orb in his hands and holding it above his head with one.

"_It doesn't really matter! I'm going to kill you anyway!_"

"No!"

Dark paused, turning his attention to Mephiles, who was breathing heavily, eyes livid and narrowed, sharp teeth bared, claws out and digging into the ground as he braced himself, keeping his weight off of his hurt foot.

"You are _not_ going to touch him! Not now, not _ever!_" He seethed, his eyes flaring up a bright glow of violet.

Then, in a surprising display of anger, Mephiles gained his own Chaos glow around his body, much like Shadow's red one, but somewhat flame like in manner. Pieces flickered off him as he readied himself to spring, claws digging up dirt as he did.

With a hint of unease, Dark quipped: "_See? This is _exactly_ what I'm talking about…_"

Without another word, Mephiles leapt at him in a flash of purple light. In a blink he had Dark on the ground, and was now biting into his arm, Dark's eyes widening in surprise.

Mephiles shook his head forcefully, slapping his clawed hands into Dark's face, scoring several scratches on his identical pale muzzle. Dark hissed under his breath, and tried to push him off. The feral hedgehog let go of the demon's arm and snapped at his ear, biting into it and tearing a piece off, spitting it out before clamping his teeth onto Dark's wrist.

Dark screamed and kicked him off forcefully, flinging Mephiles several feet away, knocking his head sharply into a tree trunk. The glow disappeared and he lifted his head before losing consciousness from the strike to the head.

Dark got up, growling dangerously as he clamped a hand to his ear. Mephiles had bitten just past the crystals and torn the tip completely off. He pulled his hand back and stared at the palm, eyes widening at the larger then he had expected amount of blood before narrowing them at the unconscious hedgehog.

"_For that, I'm going to break _every_ bone in your body before I kill you!_" He seethed, clamping his hand back to his ear and alighting his other hand with his Chaos energy.

Mephiles started to regain consciousness again… slowly, but still. A few blinks and he brought his hand to where he had hit his head. He glanced down wearily, and spotted blood on his other hand, on his fingertips. Eyes widened and he looked up at Dark, seeing the scratches on the enraged demon face.

His tongue touched his teeth and he started to spit out some fur and slivers of crystals, and what he could swear tasted like blood.

"What did I just _do..?_" He spat some it into his hand, seeing that the fur was the same color as his, and had no doubt where the crystals were from. But, still… _what_ did he just do?

He looked up again and decided, from the way Dark was glaring at him, charging his hand up for a strike of some kind, that whatever happened… it probably didn't help him out too much…

* * *

And it just keeps getting worse for him...

Well... I hope the source of Mephiles' "feral freakouts" was explained well enough for you. If not... I can try to make it clearer.

Hope you like this chapter. :D


	22. What To Do?

Okay... sorry for that lateness... but I assure you I have not forgotten all of you :D

Now at 53 reviews, I need to really thank all of you for making this my most reviewed story of not only the series, but of my entire fanfiction history as well! Thank you to:

**The All Real Numbers Symbol** - 19 reviews?! Wow!

**Lunarshadow** - 5

yet again, a person on the ... - 1

**Tyler the Kitsune** - 1

**Fortuna Draken** - 2

Akyra Narada (also known as **Mysterea**) - 4

**Shrazer320** - 2 reviews... and all the ones on DeviantArt :D

**DarkspineSilver92** - 6

**FireStorm** **The hedgehog** - 4

**Lise-chan** - 9 reviews. Oh, and and I like your own little story inspired by "Sayonara" :D

That makes 53 all together :D Thank you :D

* * *

With a busted ankle, he knew he wasn't able to get away fast enough. This worried him. So much… that his heart went into overtime, sending a spike of pain through it as it beated faster.

_Not now…_ He moaned inwardly, inhaling sharply and tensing his fingers in his chest fluff. _Please… any time but now…_

Dark faltered. He clenched his teeth together, and tensed his hands as the glow around them dimmed.

Mephiles stared up as his heartbeat slowed down.

Dark cursed under his breath, and let the glow disappear completely.

"_I thought the Emerald split us completely…_" He growled, breathing through his teeth as he narrowed his eyes at Mephiles. "_But it seems that our hearts are still connected… I just felt that… That means I still can't kill you…_"

He cursed again, angered that he now had to change tactics.

Mephiles felt his heart sink. That also meant that he couldn't kill Dark without killing himself. It was either both or neither… and too hard to choose.

Mephiles wanted to live, as he had so much to do so for. His friends had even helped him fight for that right, even when he had reached to point of nearly losing it altogether.

On the other hand, he also wanted to get rid of Dark, because this entire nightmare would stop once the rid the world of the demon.

It was a loss either way…

When the full realization hit him, it hit him hard, stunning Mephiles into absolute silence. He seemed almost frozen as he stared at the ground, his mouth half open, his eyes wide and beginning to shimmer.

Then he moved and his hand left his head, touched the ground with the other, curling in as he dug his fingers into the grass, clenching it tightly, half ready to rip a handful out of the ground.

"_I… hate… you…_" He whispered under his breath, shaking his lowered head slowly. "I can't win either way…"

"Meph, what are you talking about?" Shadow asked, having not understood what had happened.

"_I CAN'T WIN, SHADOW!_" Mephiles snapped his head up; his quills and fur on end again, chest fluff puffing out as he breathed in and out quickly and deeply. Tears standing in his eyes, he shut them and turned his head away swiftly, as if trying to hide the breakdown he was about to have. "I _can't!_ Either we _both_ die, or _neither_ of us! There's no halfway, or only one standing! It's double or nothing! If we kill him now, we kill _me_ too!"

"There… there _has_ to be another way!" Shadow shook his head. "That's just not-"

He stopped in mid sentence.

When has anything ever truly been fair to him?

To _Mephiles?_

…

…

"There has to another way." Shadow said with finality to his tone of voice, wanting to believe what he was saying as well. "You are not going to lose, and he is not going to win. You are going to win, and be free of him."

"I _can't! _Stop _lying_ to me, Shadow!" Mephiles tore out a handful of grass and threw it to the ground, acting out in anger. "It's not going to end like that! Which do you want?! Him gone or me around?! Because, we can't have both! Which one, Shadow? _Which one?!_"

Mephiles was obviously getting hysterical. Breathing fast, he giggled nervously, shaking his head, repeating: "_Which one...? Which one, Shadow..? Which one..?_" under his breath.

He was lost again…

Shadow would have facepalmed… if that didn't mean that he might have been attacked by Dark while doing it…

"_Since I can't kill him… I still have a backup plan at least…_" Dark quipped, as if this was just an afternoon conversation. "_I don't think he'll stop me from killing you right now… he's not here right now, I'm sure…_"

"Oh, you're just a little demon, you know that?"

"_Thank you…_"

"I wasn't complimenting you…"

"_Still… all the same…_" Dark smirked, forming an orb in his hand. "_I'd be careful if I was you… If you don't want to hurt him... you can't kill me… oh, _what_ a dilemma!_" He added, absolutely enjoying this. "_You want to help your friend, but you can't without hurting him. Likewise, if you just leave us alone, it'll be just as bad. So, Shadow… which do you choose? Keep him, but unleash all chaos on the world? Or destroy me, and loose him? He trusts you so much, too, y'know… it would be so ironic if you were the one to cause his death, when he's tried so hard to be your friend… which do you choose?_"

"Neither… I'm looking for another way…"

"_But, you can't…_"

"Sure I can… I'm Shadow the Hedgehog. I've done the impossible more than once before. If there's another way… I'm gonna find it…"

"_And if there isn't? It all comes down to the final question…_"

"_Shut up!_" Shadow was losing patience… if it wasn't already lost. "I'm _not_ going to let him lose…"

"_I'm afraid you don't really have a choice in the matter… And you'll just have to accept that…_"

"…"

"_Now, see… _I _can attack either one of you, I just have to be sure not to _kill _him… but you… well, you're a different story completely… I don't have to hold back… But first…_" Dark made his way over to Mephiles and grabbed him by the scruff again, earning a good screech from the crystal hedgehog. Refusing to curl up, Mephiles screamed as he swiped his claws wildly and unpredictably, trying to get Dark to let go, earning a smirk and a snicker from his double.

Dark waggled a finger in front of Mephiles' face, causing him to stop trying to break free and shift his eyes from side to side to follow it.

"_It's just so amusing how you try to make me think you can actually do damage to me…_"

"Oh, really?" Mephiles nearly scoffed once he glanced at Dark's torn ear and scratches on his face. "I'll admit I haven't done much right now… but at least it's something!" Mephiles took this moment for another chance to swipe at him and slapped his claws into Dark's face again.

Instead of being dropped like he had hoped, Mephiles was flung back into the tree by the bridge, coughing out his breath when the trunk hit his back sharply. Leaves were shook loose and drifted to the ground, a few settling in his quills.

"_I'll deal with you later!_" Dark hissed at him dangerously. "_You're just not worth the effort right now!_"

Mephiles had his hands to the back of his head, having also hit that.

_Just what I need… _He thought sarcastically, squeezing his eyes shut. _Another head injury…_

"Mephiles!"

A familiar voice… which sent him into a bit of a panic. She shouldn't be here…

"Rouge! What are you doing here! It's not safe!" He snapped his head up in the direction of the white bat, who was next to him. "Dark's free from me, and he's trying to take down Shadow!"

"Dark's… free?" Rae had apparently caught up, holding Jak, and trying to catch her breath. "That means… uh… what _does_ that mean?"

"If you think that means we can get rid of him… we can't…" Mephiles folded his ears back, looking away. "He's still linked to me just by our hearts… if he dies… I… I die too…"

"Then it's settled!" Rae said setting Jak down and clapping her hands together. "We find a way to break that link and take him down!"

"Any idea how?"

Rae stopped, her ears lifting up before taking a dive downward as her confidence deflated.

"… Didn't think about how… sorry…"

Mephiles heaved a sigh.

"Any other ideas? Because to me… there's only one, and I really don't want to do it…"

"And that is?"

"Well, let's just say the easiest way of doing it is just to kill me and let him die… but like I said… I _really _don't want to have to do that if there is another way…" Mephiles shook his head slowly, getting a few leaves off. "And what ever you get… it'll have to be something I can be able to do… because my ankle's busted again… possibly worse… so I can't really stand too well without provoking pain…"

"Connected… at the heart…" Rae said, trying to come up with a solution. "I saw a movie like that once… with a dragon voiced by Sean Connery…"

"How'd they solve that?"

Rae gritted her teeth quickly and shook her head, waving her hand halfheartedly.

"Never mind! That was just a movie! It won't help!"

Truth was that the way they solved the problem was to kill the dragon to kill the tyrant king who was sharing a part of his heart. Rae felt like that would just depress Mephiles a little more than he was already showing to be at the moment.

"Why'd you bring it up then?" Rouge asked.

_Great… this is getting a little difficult… _Rae mentally slapped herself.

"No reason! Just… uh… babbling… maybe it helped though?" In a way, she hoped it didn't… it couldn't have led to anything good.

"Wait a minute… do either of you know how to resuscitate?"

"Why..?" Rouge didn't like how this was turning.

"Well, if my heart stops… his does too…"

"No! You are _not_ going to kill yourself!"

"Not _kill…_ no, of _course_ not…"

"Then just what the heck are you planning?" Rae demanded, Jak giving a complementary bark to her tone.

"Simple… panic attacks are considered to feel like what one would guess a heart attack to be like… right?"

"From what I've read… yes…"

"I'm guessing that Dark's body won't know the difference… if I fake one with a panic attack… then we could be rid of him if his heart stops…"

"But that would make you heart stop too, won't it?"

"Yes… but you could just bring me back before it's been too long, and that should solve it…"

"But, won't that bring Dark back, too?" Rouge raised an eyebrow.

"Not if what I'm thinking is right… if we both die, we break the ties like last time. But we both have to die at the same time. Otherwise it's unlikely to work…"

"Did you just come up with this now?"

"Yes… why?"

"I'm not really all for it…" Rae added. "I mean… you almost died completely last time… Six minutes just seemed too long... what if this time it's worse?"

"Then I guess we'll just have to accept it…"

"No." Rae and Rouge both said this at the same time.

"Got any better ideas? 'Cause really, I'm open for anything better."

No response.

"My way then?"

"I don't want you to…" Rae said, sounding about as serious as he had ever heard her. "That's just not fair…"

"Life's not really fair, Rae…"

"It would be if the world was right…"

"Unfortunately, it's not… And sometimes it's worse for others… Like me…" Mephiles said quietly. "But, if I'm right… I can get out of this okay…"

Pause.

"Trust me…" Mephiles said, looking up. "_Please…_ trust me… That's all I really ask…"

"If something happens to you… I'm gonna be really mad at you…"

"Thanks, Rae… What about you, Rouge?"

"I guess… we don't really have a choice do we..?"

"Not really…"

"You'd better not die then…"

"I'll try…"

* * *

My cousin helped suggest this way.

Hope you liked it.

See you next time :D


	23. Last Thing

Okay, so this is the final chapter. I must say that is a bit different than I had planned originally, but I kinda like how it turned out.

That actually gives me an idea for something: Teaching Darkness Deleted Scenes. There is a lot that was changed and taken out, but I think you would enjoy them all the same :D

Hope you like this chapter.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, Mephiles paused.

He had never thought about inducing a panic attack before. Under normal circumstances, the idea just seemed like madness.

But this was not a normal circumstance…

And as such, it was difficult to force himself to have one.

He would have to be in such a frantic state of mind, that his brain would start playing tricks on him. He would need to be feeling such fear and anxiety that he would be afraid that he would go mad; that his mind might be losing control of his reality and sending him back to the nightmare he had experienced when he had finally cracked and ended up in a delusional state of mind…

Like it was said before: inducing that was just madness!

…

…

But, it was either that… or lose…

…

…

He didn't want to lose…

…

…

But, he realized that forcing him to have a panic attack was harder than just letting it come. He needed help…

"How do I get it started?"

"Wha?" Rae perked an ear up, having been immersed in her own thoughts at the moment to avoid watching him. "Get what started?"

"The panic attack…"

"I dunno… maybe if you start hyperventilating or something… that could be a start…"

"How is that going to help?"

"Allows you to start panicking… y'know… that sort of thing…" Rae said. "Oh, and if something happens… I'm not to be held accountable for this, right? Not that anything's going to happen though…"

"I'm taking your word for this…"

"Dunno if that's a good idea… I've been wrong before…"

"I'll risk it…"

…

…

Dark was snickering, eyes fixed on Shadow, who was ready in a defensive pose, hands in front of his face.

"_Oh Shadow… Once I'm through with you, I think I'll kinda miss you…_" Dark said with a bit of a giggle, twitching his torn ear. "_I mean, who else do I have a grudge against? I'll have to dedicate my time to hurting someone else… because Mephy Boy will get tiresome after a while…_"

"You leave him alone."

"_Why? He's just so much fun to torment. He doesn't like to fight back, so he just screams. He mostly tells me to not hurt anyone else. He usually _begs_ if it involves either you, the bat, the fox or the dog… he seems to hold you four quite dear… maybe after I'm through with you… I'll go after your little girlfriend, then maybe the girl and her dog… I should make him watch, seeing as he can't seem to do much else but…_"

"Leave them out of this…" Shadow growled. "It's not them you're after…"

"_Do I sense a bit of hostility? I don't see why you'd care about the girl and her dog at least… After all, didn't she waste your time when you were trying to find Mephy Boy a few months ago?_"

"But she helped. And she's Meph- _Our _friend… She's helped find him, and her dog likes him too. She's not a part of this, leave her _alone…_"

Jak was watching them, head tilted, ears perked up, as if he could understand them.

"_That girl seems to be a useless nuisance anyway. Too naive and trusting, in my opinion. I don't see why she likes being Mephy Boy's friend… unless they both have their weaknesses and uselessness in common. Neither can really do much._"

Jak didn't really like how Rae was getting talked about. His fur was bristling on his back, and his ratty tail shot straight up.

_Rae isn't useless! _He thought to himself, shaking his head once and snorting through his nose. _She takes care of me. She tries to take care of all her friends. Sure, she doesn't fight or anything because she can't, but she still tries to help. She's never let me down… she never let anyone down! I won't let him talk about her like that no matter how much he looks like Mephy!_

And with that he took after Dark, his thoughts on the situation unheard by anyone. He was well out of Rae's reach before she could react, and the fox could only stare in silent terror as her beloved dog tried to bite down on the foot of a demon…

Dark glanced down, seeing the cloudy-pupiled old dog trying to clamp down on his foot with what was left to call teeth. Without batting an eyelash, Dark reached down and grabbed him by the scruff, holding him out at arms length as Jak tried to turn his head to bite at the hand on his neck, baring his teeth in a hostile display of anger.

"_On second thought, I could just off the dog right now… he seems like he's old past his prime anyway, so it would be doing him a favor…_"

"_JAK!_" Rae managed to scream, her tails bristling out like bottlebrushes. "Put him down! He's not too old! He's mine! _Put him down!_"

"_Yours? So, it's safe to assume that he's your most prized possession?_"

"He's my friend, if that's what you mean!" Rae didn't want to risk saying anything that could risk getting Jak hurt. She was half tempted to call him something that also applied to her, considering her parents never married, before and after she was born. But she knew it would only tick him off. "No! I won't have it! I won't lose another one! No! No! No! _No!_"

If Mephiles ever heard her talk loudly, he obviously never heard her when she was frantic. It was almost too unbearable; it was loud, shrill, and unintelligible to a point.

However, as her dog's life was at risk, he couldn't blame her. In fact he was getting a bit frantic as well…

Among all of them, Jak was simply a dog who had no part in this confrontation. In fact, he should be one of the ones who shouldn't get hurt… He doesn't deserve injury…

As Dark charged up a Dark Spike in his hand, Mephiles started panting hard from fear of the dog's life. So much, that he was starting feel lightheaded from it. He switched to breathing deeply (from habit) to try to ward off his dizziness, only causing it to worsen.

As both the worry and fear about Jak, how Mephiles was going to get out of this situation, the lives of others and his own hit him, a spike of pain shot into his heart, prompting him to yelp and clutch at his chest, bracing himself with his other hand on the ground.

He was having trouble breathing right; the air felt too thick and almost suffocating.

He fell over on his side and curled up, whimpering… tightening his fingers in his patch of white fur as another stabbing feeling in his chest was felt.

Straining his ears, he tried to hear if Jak was let go, trying to keep the dog's safety in mind despite the onset of the panic attack he was now experiencing…

…

…

He was in such pain already…

…

…

But this made his ankle injury seem like nothing…

…

…

He couldn't hear…

…

…

Maybe this was a bad idea…

…

…

It was getting dark…

…

…

Shadow watched as Dark let go of Jak, who dropped to the ground and scurried back to Rae, completely unharmed.

"_Wha- ah… augh!_" Dark's eyes widened as his hand clutched at his chest, his teeth clenching together. He was panting hard, blinking a few times as if trying to clear his vision. Swallowing hard, he growled under his breath "_That fool… doesn't he know that doing that will..?_"

He never quite finished. With a growl, he collapsed to the ground, still clawing at his chest. He lifted his head just a little, squinting to try to see before he finally shut his eyes and his head dropped to the ground.

Shadow stared at him before realizing that there was no breath coming from the demon…

_Oh… no…_

Without even pausing, Shadow snapped his fingers and Chaos Controlled the short distance between him and his friends, leaving the motionless demon on the ground to check on Mephiles.

Shoving Rae to the side, he touched two fingers to Mephiles' neck to feel for a pulse…

Nothing…

"WHAT DID YOU LET HIM _DO!?_" Shadow shouted loud enough to make both Rouge and Rae cringe. "I TOLD HIM HE WASN'T GOING TO DIE! YOU JUST MADE A LIAR OUT OF ME! WHAT HAPPENED!?"

"It was his idea…" Rae said in a small voice, ears flattened against her head.

"And you _let_ him?!" Shadow turned on her, and Rae shrank further back.

"I said 'no'…. I told him I didn't want him to… but he just kinda had a panic attack when Dark threatened to kill Jak… I couldn't have done anything…"

Before Shadow continued to vent his anger at the purple fox, Rouge spoke up.

"If we act fast, we can bring him back again…"

"Oh, really?_ How?_" Shadow was a bit ticked off, so his reaction to all of this was quite understandable… though really a bit unnecessary.

"Same way we did last time…" Rae said, still a little scared of the hedgehog. "You remember, right?"

"But won't that bring Dark back as well?"

"Mephy thinks this would have broken the ties… but we _really_ should hurry…"

…

…

Pressing down on his chest, Shadow tried the method in the way he had seen Rae do it a few months previously.

Alternating between chest compressions and breathing into Mephiles' lungs, Shadow felt a spark of hope when he saw Mephiles twitch an ear.

Within a few minutes, Shadow pulled back just as Mephiles started to come to.

With a great deal of effort, he opened his eyes halfway and asked in a faint voice: "… D-did… we win..?"

Taking a look at Dark, who became a mass of shadows that sunk into the grass, Shadow said: "I think so…"

"… That's good…"

Pause.

"… Something feels wrong…" He added quietly, clenching his eyes shut and bringing a hand to his stomach.

"What do you mean?"

"… I-I don't feel too good…" He whispered, shaking his head slowly. "… My head hurts… my stomach hurts… _every_thing feels like it hurts…"

He brought his hand to his mouth and coughed into it as he tried to sit up. With a little bit of help, he propped himself up on his other arm and coughed a few more times before pulling his hand away. One glance made his face pale quite visibly.

Droplets of blood were spattered on his palm.

"… _That_ can't be good…"

And with that… he fainted.

"What just happened?" Rae was the first to ask.

"I'm not sure… but if I had to take a guess… he probably is hurt on the inside too…"

"Internally, then?"

"Yeah…"

"But he seemed okay before… when did he get hurt like that?"

"Earlier. I just think it took a while to catch up to him…"

"Shouldn't we get him help then?"

"Give me a minute!" Shadow snapped at her, Rae backing off carefully. "We have to be careful with him!"

"Of course…"

Carefully picking him up off the ground, Shadow took care as to not further any of Mephiles' other injuries. Mephiles shifted in his arms uncomfortably, and managed to half open his eyes to stare at him before letting his head drop without a word. He shuddered and coughed again, coughing up a bit of blood on his patch of white fur.

"What's the fastest way?" Rae added, picking up Jak and looking away, obviously a little disturbed by this. "Chaos Control?"

"Should we risk it?" Rouge said. "I mean, it could worsen his condition…"

"But if we don't hurry… that could also be bad, right?"

"Also true…"

"But, I don't think I use it right now… we'd need an Emerald…" Shadow added.

"Like that red one over there?"

Shadow looked up and saw Rae pointing over to where Dark had been. Sure enough, the red Emerald was laying there shining in the sunlight.

"I don't know… Dark said Meph has a reaction with this Emerald… that could be a problem…"

"Everything's a problem right now, huh?" Rae said, turning her head to look behind her. "It's a problem if we don't hurry… it's a problem if we do hurry… it's a problem either way… I suppose the real problem is not choosing the lesser of the two problems…"

"So you're saying..?"

"I _really_ don't want to have to change my motto to 'When seconds count… we'll be there in minutes.'… I say we should get him to the hospital the fastest way possible, that way he gets help immediately…"

"You sure?"

"I think so…"

"Then I guess we need that Emerald."

"I think we'd need to get it either way… something that powerful shouldn't be lying around, y'know?" Rae said as she hurried over to the Emerald and picked it up. "It's kinda pretty, but I like the purple one better…" She added as she handed it to Shadow… or tried to…

Shadow couldn't very well hold it, as his hands were full with an injured hedgehog.

"Should I just… well…"

"As long as I can draw on its energy… I can do it…"

"Well _that's_ convenient!" Rae added. "So… we just have to make sure we're touching your arm or something?"

"Pretty much…"

"Kwel…"

Within a few minutes as things were set up… the words were said, and in a flash of red… the five were gone…

* * *

And they appeared in front of the hospital in a few seconds.

Mephiles shuddered and regained enough consciousness to try to lift his head up again.

"… Wha… where… am… I..?" He whispered, having to pause in between for a breath. His muzzle had already paled several shades and he was beginning to shake.

"You're hurt badly, and we're taking you back to the hospital…" Shadow said, relived he was still showing signs of life. "You're probably bleeding inside, so we need to get help fast…"

Mephiles shook his head lightly, much to his friends' bewilderment.

"… No… I don't… _want_ to go there…."

"You have to…"

"… No… I'm… fine…" He continued shaking his head slowly, eyes a bit unfocused and half glazed over as he tried weakly to push away. "… I don't need… I don't want… I… _no…_"

He was obviously delirious. No doubt about it.

He started coughing again, this time sounding like he was hacking up a lung, which didn't seem too far from the truth as he pulled his hand away and everyone saw that he had coughed up even more blood.

He was definitely getting worse.

Wasting no time, they hurried into the hospital, Mephiles still trying to protest at the idea…

* * *

Almost immediately after arriving, he was checked in with no waiting time at all. Apparently today was a slow day. Which was a good thing as far as help was required.

"He's gonna be alright, right?" Shadow asked as he watched Mephiles get put on a stretcher and wheeled away to be tended to.

Dr. Thizon made a note on his clipboard before looking up.

"He seems to have suffered injures to his head, stomach, wrist, shoulders, and ankle. There are some lacerations on his arms, face and the back of his neck, as well as a few incised wounds scattered here and there. And that's just what we can see… I dread what else could be wrong…"

"Well, he just had a panic attack that stopped his heart, and before he fainted the first time, he told us that his head, stomach… just about everything hurt, just before he started to cough up blood."

"I was about to ask about that, seeing as he's got some here, here, and here…" Thizon pointed them out on a chart he was labeling to keep track of everything. "I suppose you don't mind me asking, but, what happened to him?"

"It's a long story, but pretty much, this should be his last visit for a while…"

"I'm not discharging him until he's taken care of, so he's gonna be here for a while…"

"Not too long, I guess… he heals fast…"

"Still, we can't be sure until we check him over. Feel free to wait in the waiting room, and we'll keep you filled in." Thizon flipped through a few pages and made a few more notes. "I have to say, in this past week, he's probably been our most problematic patient, what with the panic attack, trying to kill himself, and now this… I'd be a bit worried about him by this point… Dunno what he'll do next…"

"Don't worry… when he wakes up, he'll be more scared of you than you are of him." Shadow couldn't help but add with a bit of a laugh.

"I'll have to take your word for it…"

"When he does wake up, let us know so we can see him. He'll probably ask for us anyway…"

"Will do…" Thizon made one last note and disappeared behind the corner to tend to the injured hedgehog, leaving Shadow to return to the waiting room, where there was the rest of the equally concerned friends.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Rae said, not looking up from an old copy of People magazine. "I think so, because you're not sad…"

"Yeah… I think so. They're checking him over right now…"

"That's good… when do we see him?"

"They'll tell us…"

"Okay…"

* * *

Mephiles reawakened in a few hours, and once his mind registered where he was… there was a scream loud enough to be heard in the waiting room.

"So, he's up now?" Rae said with a bit of a grin.

"So it would seem…" Shadow said just as Thizon appeared at the door, quills singed on one side and an expression between annoyance and fear on his face.

"He's awake…" He said as he pushed his cracked lensed glassed back up, having slid to his nose. Realizing he couldn't really use them now, he took the off and pocketed them, squinting a little to see. "Scared of me… you say? Ha!" He added.

"I take it he's not too happy…" Shadow said.

"You might want to hurry… he's already torn up half the room…"

"Okay…"

It took no effort or time to find the room. The crowd of doctors and nurses gave it away rather nicely.

From what could be seen, Mephiles was backed into a corner, hissing and swiping his claws at anyone that came too close. A couple of scorch marks were on the walls.

"Get back! I'm warning you, I bite!" He growled, barring his teeth. "Don't mess with me!"

"You're making an idiot of yourself… you know that, right?" Shadow said to catch his attention.

Mephiles twitched an ear and looked up, still keeping his claws out.

"Why did you do this to me? You _know_ I hate hospitals…"

"Well, it was either that or let you die from internal injuries."

"What? What internal injuries? What are you talking about? Dark only broke my ankle."

"So it's safe to assume you don't remember hacking up blood?"

"Honestly, _what_ are you talking about? I remember the panic attack, and then I woke up here."

"Have you even paid attention to any of those bandages?"

Mephiles paused before taking a few minutes to see what he meant. Foot in a splint. Wrist in a brace. Upper arm wrapped. Gauze pads taped to cuts on arms, as well as a couple on his head, which also had a couple of layers of wrappings on it as well. How had he overlooked that?

"Okay… _what_ happened?"

"Some injuries caught up with you, and you pretty much passed out. You woke up a couple of times, the second time you were really out of it."

"Did we beat Dark?"

"He's gone…"

"Good. So when do I get out of here?"

"At the way you're acting… probably not soon. From my guess, I'd say they've labeled you as 'deranged' right now…"

"You'd be too if you woke up in one of your worst fears! I thought you guys _left_ me here!"

"Did you ask?"

"… Um… no… not really…"

"Well, there's the problem now…"

"So, if I'm good, will they let me out sooner?"

"Depends. They want to make sure you're okay, too. You have quite a lot of injuries there…"

"Can't be _too_ bad… I'm still standing…" Mephiles said, waving his injured hand halfheartedly. "So I should be okay."

As it turned out, the only worries about his injures now were just his broken ankle, sprained wrist and quite possibly a concussion ("I thought I didn't have one!"), which was a bit of an explanation on his minor memory loss of everything between the panic attack and waking up at the hospital, headache, slight confusion to the situation, and irritability (perhaps an understatement…) towards the hospital staff once he had regained consciousness.

Refusing to be kept there any longer, he questioned pressingly about soonest possible release time, how soon until he could thinks about taking the bandages off and stuff like that.

Also refusing to have to use a wheelchair until his foot was healed, he managed to convince them to let him to use crutches at least, which was something he had read about through late night browsing on the internet.

Within a few hours (much to the joy of the hospital staff!), he was released to go home with Shadow and Rouge, and he intended to find the funniest movie on TV that night as soon as they got back.

Waiting by the check out desk, he glanced over as he watched Rouge write his name on the list. Without a word, he waited until she put the pen back down and he picked it himself.

Crossing out something, he wrote next to the word scratched out and set it back down, giving the first smile since he had started the fight against Dark.

_Mephiles the__** /**D**/**a**/**r**/**k**/** Hedgehog_

* * *

Aw man... FF doesn't have a strikethrough option. Orignally I had "Dark" crossed out instead.

Darn...

Well... I hope you like this story. And keep watching for new ones coming soon :D


End file.
